Estate Taxes

Family businesses and farms are a vital component of our country’s heritage and the backbone of the economy.   Family-owned businesses carry an enormous share of the load in terms of employment, wages and job creation in the United States.  Furthermore, family owned businesses represent a productive and stabilizing influence on the U.S. economy since they tend to focus not only on quarterly earnings but on meeting long-term family, community and business goals.

The family business is a vital force in the American economy. About 90 percent of all U.S. businesses are family owned or controlled. They range in size from the traditional small business to a third of the Fortune 500 firms. It is estimated that family businesses generate about half of the country's Gross National Product and half of the total wages paid.

If estate tax relief was provided to these family-owned businesses, and the owners were then able to reinvest dollars into the businesses, more jobs would be created and these family-owned businesses could continue to provide employment and economic support to their towns and communities.

Given the importance of family-owned businesses to the economy, SAF supports a coordinated legislative strategy and sustained effort to reform and ultimately repeal the federal estate tax. SAF has supported incremental reform but accepts and agrees with the idea that the current estate tax ultimately should be abolished. SAF will continue to play a major role in encouraging inclusion of family business and farm estate tax relief in any tax reform bill before Congress.

Keywords: government, floral legislation, estate tax