18th District Congressman Darin LaHood joined Republican colleagues on the House Ways & Means Committee hoping to strike down the Biden Administration’s upping of what’s called the death tax.
The Biden Administration is hoping to repeal stepped-up basis, which adjusts the cost basis of an inherited asset when it is passed on in death. The provision usually reduces the capital gains tax owed by the recipient.
LaHood says repealing the provision would be devastating to family-owned farms and small business: “What this will do is employ a lot of accounts and a lot of lawyers when it comes to the changes here. These policies would also force families that may have just lost loved ones to revalue the appreciation of assets such as manufacturing equipment, and determine their tax liability and change that. If this isn’t enough, the proposal would also double the capital gains tax, an additional tax liability at the time of death.”
LaHood says that the repeal will also cause job reductions across the country over the next 12 years: “A recent study by Texas A&M that looked at repealing the stepped-up basis and decreasing the estate tax exemption to $3.5 million would be a liability average of $1.43 million per farm of additional tax liabilities. That is significant. Additionally, these proposals are estimated to kill at least 800,000 jobs over the next ten years if these proposals by the Biden Administration were implemented.”
LaHood says it will also shrink the national economy by $100 billion over the next decade. LaHood claims that by repealing the measure the Biden Administration would be violating a campaign promise by raising taxes on the middle class.