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Donald Trump, bragging about his big, beautiful bill: Very importantly for Iowa, this bill rescues over 2 billion family farms from the so-called estate tax or the death tax."
(Fact: Iowa cannot possibly have 2 billion family farms as the current population of the state is only a little over 3 million)

Walleye
(41,475 posts)HuskiesHowls
(722 posts)either the kids didn't want the farm, or somebody didn't do proper estate planning.
Walleye
(41,475 posts)I always think someone complaining about taxes is really bragging about their income
sarchasm
(1,268 posts)Paying penalties maybe, or poor planning perhaps, but if you're paying taxes, you're making money... Taxes are the dues you pay to be a member of this big club we're all in. The problem is I don't like paying for the "ICE force" and would rather give teachers a raise and spend more on education.
Walleye
(41,475 posts)Not only are there waaaay fewer than 2 Billion farms in Iowa, the estate tax under Biden exempted the first $13.6 million was exempt from taxation. How many farms have a net worth over that amount? The 2025 tax give away bill kicked that up to $30 million per couple. One more win for the children of the rich.
Ms. Toad
(37,349 posts)It is a very modest kick up to $30 million per couple.
My parents' farm in the state next door (which supported two families) is valued at around $8 million - or was before reciprocal tariffs, cancelled contracts from abroad, and cancelled foreign food aid made production of crops less valuable, driving down the value of the land.
So, yes - this is a tax breach for children of the rich. The typical family farm can already be passed down to children who want to continue farming, free of estate taxes).
Walleye
(41,475 posts)Ms. Toad
(37,349 posts)Estate tax is actually gift and estate tax. Currently, you can gift $19,000 per person per year during your life without having to include it in the Gift and Estate tax. If you give a larger gift, you have to report it annually and the estate pays taxes on it when you die.
So you would have to slowly gift the farm over time. Say a couple wanted to gift the farm to their daughter and her wife. That means they can gift $76,000 of their farm each year. For my parents to have gifted their farm to me and my wife would have taken 105 years. Any gift larger than $76,000 has to be reported and tallied each year - and that reported excess isn't taxed at the time of the gift - it counts toward the (currently) $13.999 million exemption ($27.998 million for lifetime).
OrangeJoe
(511 posts)I misread the old exemption number, failing to note that the $16.6 million number was per person, not per couple, I stand corrected. I still maintain that a $30 million farm is most likely corporate owned and for many years has enjoyed generous subsidies and other tax breaks. Let's say it's worth $40 million. The tax due would then be 40% of the $10 million in excess of the deduction. That's very affordable.
Ms. Toad
(37,349 posts)Our family farm was a corporation. It supported two families - our family and my father's cousins family. Being a corporation, and working as employees of the corporation, has certain advantages - like being able to buy health insurance for example. We weren't any richer - we still filled out the free school lunch applications every year because we were that close to qualifying. The year I started teaching, with a salary of $10,005 was also the first year my father made that much money.
But I agree that most farms worth more than $30 million are probably owned by non-family corporations.
But here's the kicker . . . Corporations aren't eligible for the gift and estate tax exemption. So a farm owned by a corporation isn't included in the exemption anyway.
In our case, the land was owned by my parents and leased to the corporation, so unlike true corporate farming, it will be part of their estate. And for others similarly situated, regardless of how reasonable you believe the taxes are - most farmers are land rich and cash poor. My father was out of debt for a few days last year it was the first time in 70 years of farming he had been out of debt. (He's in his 90s, leases the land to neighbors in a way that still requires active involvement in the farm finances.) So ultimately our land will be sold, and it might present a temporary cash flow problem to pay the taxes, but it wouldn't be a disaster since the next generation isn't farming. If the kids wanted to farm, however. coming up with the cash to pay a $4 million tax bill would likely mean selling off land the kids needed to farm.
Walleye
(41,475 posts)Who do they think and what do they think is protecting their right to own that land
Martin68
(26,192 posts)discretionary spending and savings. Most of a family farmer's money is tied up in the value of the land (which is based on the value of the land if it is subdivided for residential use) and investments in vey expensive equipment. Maintenance is an enormous expense. They are at the mercy of weather, pests, and fluctuating prices of the produce they sell as well as the cost of fertilizer, seed, fuel - and trade policy.
Walleye
(41,475 posts)OrangeJoe
(511 posts)I think there have been changes so that for tax purposes farmland is no longer valued at its highest use, i.e. subdivisions.
Martin68
(26,192 posts)However, the value of the land were it to be subdivided for residential use is often quoted in evaluating a farming family's wealth. As long as they farm the land, they have no access to the capital they could earn if they stopped farming and sold the land for subdivision.
atreides1
(16,799 posts)It's like having 5,000 businesses located in one small building in the Cayman Islands...
The reality: In the United States, family farms represent the vast majority of farms, accounting for 95% of the 1.9 million farms and ranches. These family-owned and operated farms manage 84% of the total land in farms.
bullimiami
(14,047 posts)Less than 2 billion. Hes like a toddler.
AZ8theist
(6,792 posts)He's a mental midget. 3 year olds are more intelligent.
Paladin
(31,099 posts)I know, I know---the whole "What If Biden Did It" trope gets beaten to death here at DU---but the mainstream media's loathsome double standard regarding trump's daily/hourly/minute-by-minute lunacy needs to be called out, over and over and over again. We're suffering to the point of national annihilation because Kamala Harris isn't President---and the media's addiction to trump stories that write themselves is a big reason why she isn't.
calimary
(87,121 posts)THAT says it all. THAT tells you everything you need to know.
And having been part of that machinery when I was still working, I know how that goes. Youre tempted to at least go a little easier on someone you want access to. If you want an interview, you make like youre on their side, or at least youre very interested in HEARING their side, from their own words. There are ways to appear sympathetic, even though its the big dirty payoff youre after. I just want to give you a chance to respond
or even better, I think you deserve to have a chance to respond
or nowadays, use a phrase like
wanted to give you a chance to share your truth about
Frankly, that phrase your truth just blows me away! I wonder who came up with that, or recommended its use. What a manipulation!!! Its deviously brilliant. Especially because the word truth is in there, and thats likely to throw a lot of unnecessary wiggle room for those who want to sound good and noble and honest and truthful - without actually being anything of the kind.
Paladin
(31,099 posts)calimary
(87,121 posts)I worked through both pregnancies. MAN was I huge! Lots of water weight!
You just made me think back to one of the times I interviewed Zsa Zsa Gabor. God was I big, and not far from delivery day. She didnt try to ignore it like so many others did, all trying to be diplomatic - but SHEESH was I hard to miss! She looked at me, then my huge middle, and back up to me, and said dahling! Are you going to name it after me? And all I could think of was. Well, no, but it does have a z in it! Wed already planned to name our soon-to-be daughter Elizabeth. As I recall, that did make her smile!
Paladin
(31,099 posts)Named after my beloved grandmother.
calimary
(87,121 posts)And Elizabeth is the name of Jesuss grandmother, if I remember correctly from Catholic school.
Johnny2X2X
(23,096 posts)Or maybe it was 2 farms?
madinmaryland
(65,502 posts)Upthevibe
(9,657 posts)Jesus effing Christ.........
The U.S. has a population of 340 million....................
Botany
(74,807 posts)Are you trying to say that 340 million < 2 billion?
DavidDvorkin
(20,264 posts)He said it would be important for two billioni family farms, and (therefore) especially important for Iowa.
dpibel
(3,621 posts)What you're saying is he didn't mean that every person in Iowa owns 670 farms. He meant every person in the United States owns 6.
Much fairer.
DavidDvorkin
(20,264 posts)I was just quibbling with that detail in the OP.
twodogsbarking
(14,514 posts)short, like Trump's attention span.
pansypoo53219
(22,413 posts)all pilled out pf his flabby ass.
in Iowa have always outnumbered the people but about 10-1 from what I have been told by Iowa friends.
jmbar2
(7,077 posts)The other day, he said that there were 11, 780 illegal immigrant murderers, the same number as the number of votes he was trying to get Raffensberger to find for him in Georgia 2020 election.
Yesterday, Trump Media bought $2 billion in bitcoin -- that number is stuck in his head today.
Moostache
(10,701 posts)First off is the overwhelming concern Trump - AT AGE 79 (3 years older than the now dead Ozzy Osbourne) - is obsessed with accumulating MORE wealth. I don't care if he lies and says its for his family (one, because he would be lying as usual and two, because I think inherited wealth beyond $10M to any individual is an inherently destabilizing thing for society overall and should be eliminated comepletely). I don't care why at all. I DO care about the idea that a man who will be VERY lucky to see the 2030s (actuarially speaking, he is already beyond his 'sell by' karma date) is still making 'deals' and doing things that will harm people in the name of increasing his 'wealth'.
Its depraved and disgusting and so many Americans are perfectly fine with this because it is sort of their collective delusion brought to the flesh. There are MILLIONS of Americans who will NEVER have $100,000 to their name, let alone $1,000,000 and certainly never $1,000,000,000. Yet they all seem to act and vote as if its just a matter of time for them to be doing exactly what Trump is doinig...getting more money as an objective measure of human life's value.
Our major problem is that the GOP has successfully convinced those from the 75th to the 20th income bracket that those in the bottom quintile are coming to takje THEIR stuff and impoverish THEIR families and make it so that THEIR wealth obsession doesn't come true. All the while, the top 1% enact laws and practices that do two things - 1) increase the % of wealth in that top 1% annually and compounding and 2) ensures that the ladder they climbed up to get there is either pulled up out of reach forever or more simply destroyed entirely.
People all seem to vote and talk and act like they are merely a few years away from their viral TikTok or social meida podcast taking off and landing them in the same income neighborhood as Trump or his opportunistic 'friends'.
I hope the last thing Donald Trump hears before he dies (and hope MORE that he dies sooner than anyone can even read this) is Nipsey Hussle's track "FDT" or Stephen Colbert's retort to him yesterday. Go fuck yourself indeed Two Scoops, but while you eventually DO die, do so knowing that when you are gone forever, far more people will be happy beyond words than sad even a little.
Vinca
(52,413 posts)calimary
(87,121 posts)BaronChocula
(3,012 posts)Wiz Imp
(6,154 posts)Subject to the estate tax. Using 1.9 million as the total number of family farms in the US, that means a grand total of just 5700 family farms in the entire US would ever be subject to the estate tax.
The latest number I could find for family farms in Iowa was 87,000. This mean only approximately 260 farms would be subject to estate taxes in Iowa.
Ptah
(33,832 posts)Ms. Toad
(37,349 posts)It's going to $30,000,000.
For reference, my parents Nebraska farm (and other assets acquired through non-farming endeavors) is valued at around $8 million (before tariffs changed the landscape, making farmland less valuable). It supported two families.
Before the tax bill, my parents could have passed 3.75 family farms capable of supporting two families each could have been passed tax-free. After, they could have passed 4 family farms capable of supporting two families each could be passed tax free.
The modest increase in estate tax won't make a bit of difference to family farmers.
Chalco
(1,415 posts)live love laugh
(15,670 posts)Last edited Tue Jul 22, 2025, 07:08 PM - Edit history (1)

Karasu
(1,657 posts)oasis
(52,520 posts)
eggplant
(4,095 posts)or he could just be having a senior moment.
C Moon
(13,004 posts)Picaro
(2,116 posts)He was saying shit like this during the campaign and people voted for him. Because they like that he speaks his mind without regard to reality.
I get it, but I dont get it all at the same time.
What is currently going on often leaves me speechless.
MW67
(33 posts)Rumpenstein knows lots about farms ,that's what he means by " I'm a stable genius" when caught by his grandfather in an inappropriate relationship with a calf he yelled " help grandpa the calf is trying to eat me alive! Stable genius.
Hassler
(4,459 posts)Said, everyone dies, and hopefully Magat Iowans will tip over quickly, very quickly.
Attilatheblond
(6,736 posts)The math ain't mathin'
But whadda ya expect from the business man who managed to bankrupt casinos?
Attilatheblond
(6,736 posts)I found quote of him saying 2 MILLION farmers. Did he actually say 2 billion?
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/america-s-best-birthday-gift-trump-calls-new-legislation-one-big-beautiful-bill/ar-AA1HVZsc]
"Very importantly for Iowa, this bill rescues over 2 million family farms from the so-called estate tax, or the Death Tax," Trump said.
JDAcme
(35 posts)has nearly four thousand farms. Thats why they call Iowa a farm state.
dgauss
(1,389 posts)This guy sucks.
live love laugh
(15,670 posts)
lonely bird
(2,425 posts)Nothing he says matters.
The only things that are important are as follows:
Doing everything possible to file lawsuits on every executive order
Filing lawsuits against ICE
Blocking ICE whenever and wherever possible
Filing lawsuits against any and all actions by and against the department of education, EPA
Filing lawsuits against any and all DEI destruction
Blocking as much as possible any actions by Republicans in the house and senate
Blocking as much as possible any actions by Republicans on the state level
Complete destruction of the Republican Party
Oh, and blasting on every media, especially any and all social media and podcasts, his lies about his relationship with Epstein
I want, no, I DEMAND that the Democratic Party on every level take this as seriously as it needs to be taken. The goal of those behind the thrown is not just the Republican lie of small government. The goal is the complete alteration of society in this country.
This. Is. War.
Storm the headquarters.
Brainfodder
(7,537 posts)
I still wanna hear more about this $1.99 gas and eggs now 300% off!


Talk about Rushmore 2.0 some more too, that one hits!
