The National Corn Growers Association continued this week to fight to protect tax priorities for farmers ahead of the release of Congress’ $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package. As part of these efforts, NCGA joined hundreds of state and federal agricultural organizations in sending three coalition letters urging Congress to preserve important tax provisions.
Letters that were sent to Congress this week with corn growers support:
- NCGA and state corn growers were part of a letter with 327 national, regional and state trade associations highlighting agricultural tax priorities including stepped-up basis, like-kind exchanges, the Sec. 199A small business deduction and current estate tax provisions.
- NCGA and state corn grower associations were part of over 160 signatories in the Family Business Estate Tax Coalition letter, focusing on the importance of preserving stepped-up basis and potential issues that could come with setting exemptions on inherited property.
- NCGA joined 39 other organizations in a letter supporting the current law for like-kind exchanges of real estate under section 1031. Farmers, ranchers and forest owners use like-kind exchanges to combine acreage, acquire higher-grade land, mitigate environmental impacts and otherwise improve the quality of their operations.
These letters build on previous coalition efforts and come on the heels of an aggressive campaign by NCGA to deliver the message to Members of Congress to preserve stepped-up basis. Corn growers have responded to a national call-to-action resulting in over 6,000 messages being sent to over 160 offices in the U.S. House of Representatives and 86 offices in the U.S. Senate. NCGA also conducted a coordinated phone campaign that strategically reached various key congressional Member offices.
The overwhelming response from growers reinforced concerns from our members that the proposals to repeal the stepped-up basis on capital gains taxes would have devastating effects on family farms, small businesses and rural communities across the nation.
The House Ways and Means Committee is expected to markup legislation next week, which will include provisions on how it will fund the budget reconciliation package through tax increases.