New Tax Laws Being Debated Says Strain

by Don Molino

Louisiana Commissioner of Agriculture and Forestry Dr. Mike Strain, speaking during his daily address on the Voice of Louisiana Agriculture Radio Network, said a number of tax law changes that affect farmers are being discussed by the incoming administration which takes office Friday.

Strain says topics being discussed include estate taxes, capital gains and cost recovery taxes, all being widely talked about during the recent American Farm Bureau convention in Phoenix.

“The Trump Administration wants to switch the so-called “death tax” to a capital gains tax and long term capital gains would be either a 10% or 15% rate, “said Strain.

“One of the principal reasons small businesses, like farmers, don’t become big businesses is due to the current estate tax,” Strain explained. “And because of the size of the assets and the lifetime of accumulations, there isn’t enough cash flow to pay that tax and the business (or farm) has to be sold.”

“We must structure our taxes in such a way that they facilitate the growth and the economy and not hamper the economy.  In the next 20 years, 75% of all farms are going to be transferred to the next generation,” said the commissioner.

Also being discussed during the Farm Bureau gathering was a 20% tax on all imported products, which would affect US products as they try to find overseas markets.

“Remember, one in three acres of America’s production is sold off shore,” Strain continued.