>>>Bill isn't really suggesting that inherited money be confiscated. He is suggesting, and I agree with him, that above some threshold (which should be indexed to inflation, in my view), it should be heavily taxed. At a minimum, it should be taxed the same as any other income. After all, money is taxed every time it changes hands.
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>>So, family farms should not be passed down through generations?
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>True family farms would be under the threshold. In fact, I'd have no problem indexing the threshold in a way that ensured that most family farms would stay under it.
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>FWIW, I can't find any links that indicate the value of farms, but I did find this: http://www.agweek.com/event/article/id/71528/publisher_ID/22/
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>It says that 88% of US farms are classified as "small family farms," with annual sales of $250K or less. I don't know how it works for farms, but I do know that when buying a business, one typically pays 3 to 4 times the annual profit. Assuming the same things holds here, since that $250K is gross, not net, we can safely say that almost all family farms in the US are worth less than $1M. The current estate tax exemption is over $5M.
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>Tamar

I have an uncle that farms in the NW corner of Iowa. He recently mentioned to me that agricultural land in that area was selling for $10,000/acre.

According to http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/small_medium_large_does_farm_size_really_matter

"Acreage is another way to assess farm size. According to the USDA, small family farms average 231 acres; large family farms average 1,421 acres and the very large farm average acreage is 2,086. It may be surprising to note that small family farms make up 88 percent of the farms in America."

So, most family farms would fall under the exemption, but there is certainly the possibility for a family farm to exceed the $5M exemption.

My uncle thinks farm land prices seem to be in a bubble now. Who knows how long that will last.