President Donald Trump hosted a farmer’s round table discussion at the White House on Tuesday alongside newly confirmed and sworn-in Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Purdue of Georgia. The president announced a new executive order, which he then signed, to help deregulate the agriculture industry which he said will boost prosperity for farmers, ranchers and rural communities.
The President also discussed a new task force formed by the order to tackle these issues and others in the agriculture industry including trade-gaps with other countries competing on the international market with U.S. ag products.
You can read the contents of the two-page executive order here.
The President’s deregulation efforts are part of several promises made to the ag industry by Trump during his campaign in which he also vowed to eliminate the estate tax, which he said is particularly hurting family farms by forcing people off their land.
Also referred to as the “death tax”, the federal estate tax can be as much as 40% of the total estate value. The problem lies in that many farm estates are much heavier in property and assets than they are in cash on hand. This, many times, forces the sale of land and assets to cover the estate tax burden currently levied by the federal government which was phased out between 2001 and 2010 but was reinstated at a top rate of 35% in 2011 and 2012, but was then supposed to return to 2001 levels. However, Congress made the estate tax permanent with a top rate of 40% on New Year’s Day of 2013.