rw wrote:

Jonathan Cook wrote:

Larry wrote:


It is my belief that limits should exist on how much can be passed on



In general I agree, but in practice this becomes difficult sometimes.
I am adamantly opposed to families forced to sell or break up a family
ranch just to pay inheritance or property
taxes.


The notion that the estate tax forces the breakup of family farms is a
myth:

According to the IRS, of the 2.3 million people who died in 1998, only
642 left farm assets equal to at least half the total estate. In 2001,
the New York Times reported that the pro-repeal American Farm Bureau
Foundation could not cite a single case of a family farm lost due to the
estate tax.

Many of the wealthiest "farmers" aren’t really farmers at all.
A significant number of the “farmers” who would benefit from estate tax
repeal are actually city-dwellers who own a ranch or horse farm as a
vacation getaway.

from http://www.faireconomy.org/estatetax/ETFarms.html

in nc, the loss of family farms has nothing to do with the estate tax.
urban development, the meager profit to be made, and the lack of
interest by farmer's children in farming seem to be the things
destroying farms here. nc never had the large number of huge farming
operations i've read about in some other states, but now it seems that
only the huge farms are surviving.