NFIB

NFIB's Dixon and House Speaker William Howell, right, celebrate repeal of the death tax. A strong bipartisan effort stalled in 2002 but succeeded this year due to persistence by legislators and determined small-business owners and farmers across the Commonwealth, as well as key support from Gov. Tim Kaine.

Earlier this week in Richmond, NFIB members attended a reception hosted by McGuireWoods Consulting to thank legislators and coalition members who helped end Virginia's egregious death tax, or estate tax. In August, the House of Delegates accepted the governor's recommendations to HB 5019, and the Senate immediately followed suite. Gov. Kaine has signed the bill into law.

As a result, the new law will eliminate the Commonwealth's death tax for estates of persons who die on or after July 1, 2007. Families of small-business owners and farmers will experience less pressure to sell assets to pay Virginia's death tax, which will help keep more family-owned enterprises up and running.

NFIB members in attendance included Joe Wilson with Permatreat Pest Control (Fredericksburg), David Lee with Lee & Associates (Harrisonburg), Michael Coakly from Coakly Construction (Falls Church), Mary Jane Hogue with JMJ Corporation (Richmond), TR Cook from Cook Photo Art Studio (Vienna), Roger Cole with Highway Service Ventures (Ashland) and Jim Beamer from JWB Consulting (Richmond). Members thanked Sen. Tommy Norment (Williamsburg) and Del. Bob Tata (Virginia Beach) for their unwavering support for repeal, as well as House Speaker William Howell (Fredericksburg), Sen. Edd Houck (Spotsylvania) and other key players in attendance.

Said Houck, "Everywhere I went, I heard from NFIB small-business owners and farmers who did not want to sell off the farm or that small business or leave the type of lifestyle that had been in the family for many generations."

NFIB/Virginia State Director Gordon Dixon, left, and NFIB member Joe Wilson, center, thank Sen. Tommy Norment, right, for his leadership on repeal of Virginia's death tax.

Speaker Howell credited the "grassroots effort that really made this successful. It's hard for groups to successfully argue for more tax relief, but small-business owners and farmers are who really made this work. It's you who I commend."

NFIB/Virginia State Director Gordon Dixon thanked Speaker Howell and others, noting to audience members, "NFIB members have been passionate about full death tax repeal, and it was good to have the speaker's calm, cool wit to shepherd (a meaningful bill to) a final conclusion."

NFIB would like to thank McGuireWoods' Stephen Horton for spearheading efforts of Virginians for Death Tax Repeal, a diverse 60-member coalition that included NFIB, the Agribusiness Council and the Virginia Farm Bureau. Dixon commended Horton for issuing timely updates and calls to action and for keeping the coalition united through several trials over a five-year period.