Legislation that would permanently repeal the federal estate tax has been re-introduced.
Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley joined Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) to reintroduce legislation that would permanently repeal the federal estate tax, also known as the death tax, a move long-supported by NFIB.
“Congress ought to do everything possible to encourage family enterprises to get next generations involved and keep the doors open for business,” Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley said in a statement. “It’s getting harder all the time to keep a farm or small business in the family from one generation to the next. The estate tax doesn’t serve any purpose except forcing family farms and family-run businesses to waste precious capital on costly tax planning and in too many cases, paying taxes on income or property that have already been taxed once. Rather than sending even more taxes to Washington, D.C., it would be far better to allow family farms to keep this money so they can invest in the rural communities they are located in to create new opportunities.”
In 2017, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) did not repeal the death tax, but the law doubled the individual estate and gift tax exclusion to $10 million ($11.4 million in 2019 dollars) through 2025, which prevents more families from being affected by this tax.
