NOW BA.....

[tomtoolbag]

  He left out a inconvenient fact, such as how are school districts funded that have no farm land within the borders of their district. It may be true for an area or school that there are more farms or land as opposed to homeowners so that the school includes all that land for tax purposes and it outnumbers the other types of property that is susceptible to taxes, but look at those same school districts and the life expectancy of them. Heck, a popcorn fart has a longer expectancy than most of the schools that are heavily funded by taxing farm land.

  he lives in Iowa, and I don't know how they compute the rates for farm land, but in Illinois it is a screwy formula that is based upon the productivity of the land, and averaged out over a 5 year period, computed in the 6th, and paid in the 7th year. I wish that they would give me the option of calculating property taxes that way.

[kraft-t]

By Golly you are doomed. Tell your folks to leave the land to me and I will see if I can figure out how borrow 18 % of it's value and pay it back

It will be a struggle and challenge my managerial skills but I would be willing to take that risk  I know that I might have to do a little estate planning or establish a trust to avoid those oppressive estate taxes. Who knows I might even have to pay spome taxes like the mniddle class does. 3 million here and 3 million there and pretty soon you aren't middle class

.

[BA Deere]

That $550,000 estate taxes on 500 acres is $1,100 @ acre?  20 short years ago farmland was bringing that at auction!!!!  And ....here`s the kicker within a couple years of someone inheiriting those hypothetical acres the land price might drop back to $1,100 an acre!!!!! He or she would be on the second year of twenty in paying the death tax and the land would be worth less than THE TAXES!!!  How "profitable " would Canuck farms Inc be with a $1,100/acre millstone around it`s neck? And who are any of us to decide that if someone can`t afford death taxes, they shouldn`t be farming? And why every year we should have go to an attorney and spend $$$$$ to protect our businesses from death taxes?  If you liberals out there don`t really care if farms are lost to death taxes, find, if you can a person who lived through the 30`s depression, farms then sold for back property taxes, listen and learn! 

[BA Deere]

Any Iowa farmer will back this up. 60% of farmland tax goes to the school district, maybe more maybe less but about 60%. Tax per acre is about $25 a yr, so about $15/acre goes to the school. $15 an acre or $4,500 for 300 acres, it doesn`t matter if you live in the district or even in Iowa. It doesn`t matter if you have kids or not, THAT`S WHAT YOU PAY EVERY YEAR!! I`m just saying GIVE CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE!!!!

[tomtoolbag]

  So, 15 bucks p/acre, that's it?????????? Does that apply to schools that have no taxable farm land within their district too? Or, is it all paid into the state level and they pass X amount of money on to every school?

  That $4500 is pretty light, considering that most of those rural school boards are stacked with farmers for the basic fact that they won't increase their own taxes.

  Consider yourself lucky, total taxes for just 2 properties are that much alone, and just under 4 to exceed your total tax.

 Maybe I should start taking lessons on how to bitch and moan about taxes from you.

[kraft-t]

The heirs are NOT paying the taxes. The estate is. What the heirs get is what is left after the taxes. Instead of inheriting $3 million, you are inheriting $2,450,000. The heirs do not write the check to the government. The executor of the estate does before it the estate is closed.  If you are concerned that your $2.5 million in real estate may go back to $1000 per acre, then you should put it all on the market immediately. That is a silly excuse for the estate not paying taxes.

There is not that says you must encumber yourself with debt. Sell a part of it for appraised value and that will settle the estate. The rest of the estate is yours to do with as you wish. Farm debt free for the rest of your life and don't worry about that $550K you didn't inherit. Maybe that crazy aunt will leave you enough to make up the difference.

I understand you don't want to break up the farm. But must of us that buy land have far greater challenges than that. Gosh sometimes we may owe as much as 50 60 or 70% on a farm and we face that challenge knowing full well that land values could collapse. Just like during the 80's when land prices collapsed and turned out to be a good time to buy land. However, you still had to have the guts to bid into a falling land market.

I really don't care if you inherit land or cash or earn it. Taxes are taxes and we cannot exclude so much gain from any source without taxing it. I mean lottery winners have to pay taxes. Workers have to pay taxes. Why shouldn't estates have to pay taxes. What is it about growth in assets that deserves tax exclusion? Your assets are yours and shouldn't be taxed? What about the guy that earns $100K. That money is his assets and we regularly tax him. I don't get it.

[schnurrbart]

The proof is in the pudding, my fine friend.  Tell us all what your party has EVER done for the working people of this world and not the commodity traders and stock brokers of the world.

[r3020]

BA, it's not your money, it belongs to the government. Just be glad they let you keep the farm until you are gone.

[GreaTOne_654018744]

Don, I do like BA, if he weren't so far to the right, he might have a chance at being sensible, at other times it's like talking to a board. There is a way out of all of this. A farmer friend, who had 6 kids, only one of them farmed, gave the farm to the one son that wanted to farm to him. No probate, no taxes, no nothing, end of argument.

[kraft-t]

So Corps can just raise prices to pay their tax responsibility?  Why then are you concerned about taxes. You only need to add the cost to your grain sales or lifestock sales and you can make your customers pay your tax.

Just a clue. Cost of doing business does not determine price. Price is determined by willing sellers and willing buyers. So if public is willing to Pay $10 for your widget it matters not whether $5 of the cost is production cost and $3 is taxes the margin is still $2 dollars. That is why business so resists tax increases. Because they want to retain as much of that $10 selling price as they can.

If they could pass that tax cost on to consumers by simply adding it to price, why would they care how much taxes are? That is simply nonsense that has been passed along for decades and people swallow it.

A product will bring a finite price according to demand and competitive producers. If your price is $10 and competitors are less it is impossible to raise your price to $11 just because your costs are higher. Your competitor will take your market share and you will be left with over priced product.

So Your saving if my federal tax bill is $40 K all I need to do is add $1 per bushel to my sales price on corn. I'll bet my corn buyer will pay it even though there are many farmers that will sell to him for less.

Do you recognize how ludicrous that statement is?

BTW cigarette taxes are a voluntary tax. You either buy them or you don't. I haven't bought a pack for 22 years. I don't pay one dime of cigarette tax and really don't feel to sorry for those that do. We ought to do the same thing with marijuana. People want to buy illegal drugs, lets sell it to them and tax it. BTW I have a relative in the slammer right now because of possession. What a waste of time and money.