At CattleCon 2025, Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, spoke with National Cattlemen’s Association executive director of government affairs, Kent Bacus, about the challenges surrounding legislative tax policies in Congress.
Coverage of CattleCon 2025 is powered by Farm Data Services of Stillwater, Oklahoma.
Most agricultural groups agree that extending the 2017 Trump Tax Cuts would be ideal, however, Bacus, believes that the most important component of that package is the death tax exemption which he would like to see made permanent.
Bacus said that accomplishing that will be tough, but House and Senate leadership is on their side. He listed Iowa State Representative Randy Feensta, House Chairman Jason Smith, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune as major supporters of that agenda.
“The death tax is an egregious double tax that unfairly targets American family farms and small businesses and directly threatens long-held farming traditions in rural Iowa and across the country. It is ridiculous that the federal government sends grieving families a massive tax bill when a loved one passes away,” said Rep. Feenstra in a news release his office released on the introduction of his Death Tax Repeal Act. “I introduced the Death Tax Repeal Act to put an end to this double taxation, help our farmers and small business owners pass their businesses onto the next generation, and ensure that we can keep our family traditions alive across America. By permanently repealing the death tax, my bill will offer financial relief when it’s most needed and ensure that our families, farmers, and small businesses can keep more of their hard-earned money — just as it should be.”
“I feel pretty good knowing that we have all of that strong support, but when these bills get introduced, you are going to see a lot of support from the get-go,” Bacus cautioned. “On the other side, you are going to have people saying, ‘This is a tax break for the wealthy.’ Anybody in agriculture knows that your greatest asset is your land, so this is not about taxing liquid assets. That is a complete misconception.”
Completely repealing the death tax permanently will help multi-generational agricultural operations remain intact.
He also listed 199A, a deduction for small businesses, 179, or bonus depreciation, as tax cuts worthy of protection. “These are all great tools that our people are using, and we have to make sure that our voice is heard,” Bacus stated.
Along with the rising costs of inputs is the rising cost of real estate. “We have great farm and ranch land here,” Bacus said, “This country is custom-built for agriculture. Everyone else in the world is jealous of what we have, and we are really good at using it. The problem is, as that value goes up if the tax code doesn’t reflect that, then you will have a lot of people who are caught up in it.”
NCBA released the findings of a tax study conducted last year and it showed that 61% of the 1,200 respondents would suffer from failing to update tax codes.
“That is reflective of the whole industry,” Bacus insisted. “This is not a handful of people that are going to get caught up in it. If this reverts back to that five million dollar -adjusted for inflation – that is going to hit a ton of people. That is concerning considering all of the other pressures on agriculture.
While NCBA’s goal is for all of the tax cut measures to become permanent, Bacus said it is still too early to tell whether or not Congress will be able to pay for all of it. They have taken the position of fighting for the full and permanent repeal of the death tax for future generations.
“We need the government to get out of that mindset of taxing people their entire lives on property that has already been taxed for others’ entire lives,” Bacus pointed out. “We need to look at having a more dynamic economy that isn’t punishing people for being successful but is encouraging investment and family small businesses to thrive.”
Resolving the tax package is a first 100-day priority for Congress. According to Bacus, the Senate may take longer. Bacus is hopeful that a resolution will be found this year and is pushing for a spring deadline.
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