Farmers have many things to consider before making plans for their estate. Accounting firm K•COE ISOM offered several tips during a series of meetings in June that were provided by the Indiana Corn Growers Association and the Indiana Soybean Alliance Membership and Policy Committee.
Assess priorities before creating an estate transfer plan BY ANN HINCH GREENFIELD, Ind. — Just as political administrations and power cycle in Washington, D.C., so do proposals for funding the services of federal government. As the Indiana Soybean Alliance (ISA) Membership and Policy Committee and Indiana Corn Growers Association (ICGA) take on lobbying Congress on behalf of the state’s row crop farmers, the groups’ leaders need to hear from members about how proposed federal tax and estate planning changes concern them. In May, the Biden administration released its 2022 budget along with “General Explanations of the Administration’s Fiscal Year 2022 Revenue Proposals.” Commonly referred to as the “Green Book,” this publication summarizes an administration’s spending and funding proposals. While it has no effect of law, leading food and agriculture consulting and accounting firm K•COE ISOM explained the Green Book’s details typically shape conversations concerning tax legislation in the U.S. House and Senate. On June 10, representatives from K•COE – which has offices across the
country – spoke at an ISA/ICGA breakfast in Greenfield to explain some of President Biden’s proposals with the potential to impact farm estate planning and taxation.
Estate tax proposals One proposal is to change estate tax thresholds. K•COE Principal Kevin Beasley said current law allows an individual exemption of about $11.7 million for the transfer of property/ estate to heirs by gift or upon death – value above that level is taxed at 40 percent upon transfer. Married couples can pair their threshold and double the estate value to more than $23 million. “Every administration wants to change the estate tax laws,” he noted, adding this tax was created in 1916 in part to help fund efforts in World War I; before then, it didn’t exist, despite some of the nation’s founders wanting to institute estate tax in the late 1700s to prevent the rise of an aristocratic class as in Europe.
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