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Estate tax professionals getting busier as policies are debated

Partners of an ag consulting and accounting firm say farmers and small business owners need to meet with their tax professionals now, while they can.

Jim Rein with KCOE ISOM says the future of tax policies are up in the air as Congress debates proposals on eliminating stepped up basis and increasing capital gains tax at death- and those decisions may be finalized at an inopportune time.

“We are concerned about that timing being so late in the year folks might not be able to get things done, whether is it drafting documents, or you need real estate appraised or what have you. There is going to be so much activity in this area this year we don’t want folks to get left out in the cold.”

Brian Kuehl says many are scrambling to get their estates in order and the longer you wait to meet with your tax specialists, fewer options will be available.

“Your tax professionals are going to be short on resources in terms of time come the end of the year. Your attorneys will be short on time because everyone is going to be looking at estate taxes. We have already heard from evaluation companies that they are getting overwhelmed with the number of people who are working on changing their estate plans.”

Rein and Kuehl made their comments during a tax reform webinar Wednesday hosted by the National Corn Growers Association.