Ernst Blasts Biden’s New Tax Hike on Family Farmers, Businesses

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, is blasting President Biden for his plan to hit family-owned businesses, farmers, and ranchers with “a new backdoor death tax.”

 

In a letter to the president, Ernst warns that Biden’s plan would make drastic changes to the taxation of capital income amounting to “a significant tax increase that would hit family-owned businesses, farms, and ranches hard, particularly in rural communities” when a family business is passed down to the next generation.

 

Ernst writes that, under the Biden plan, if the “step-up” in basis on capital income were eliminated, it would force many businesses “to pay tax on appreciated gains, including simple inflation, from all prior generations of family owners—despite not receiving a penny of actual gain.”

 

Ernst continues, “We respectfully urge you to reconsider your proposal to repeal this important part of the tax code. Preserving step-up in basis would save American jobs and ensure that small businesses, farms, and ranches across the country can stay in their families for generations to come.”

 

Read Ernst’s full letter to President Biden HERE.