People don't "lose" the farm due to estate taxes. It wasn't their farm. They just don't get it for free. My basic problem with it is the tax itself. Why tax a business that has already been paying income and other taxes ever since it was started? This just seems like double and triple taxation.
First, you can leave a substantial amount of property to your heirs free of estate taxes. All property left to your spouse is exempt from any estate taxes. In addition, a significant amount of property is exempt from tax, going up each year. Yes, but when the property passes to the kids it is all taxable unless you have done some fancy trust work ahead of time. A large farm or established business could result in a very large tax bill and if the kids have no cash reserves, they are going to have to pay a bunch to keep it.
Second, the Internal Revenue Service allows a closely held family business to value land on the basis of its "current use" rather than on the standard "fair market value." Current use valuation of farmland usually can reduce the land value by 20 to 50 percent. This will, in turn, sharply reduce potential estate taxes. What about a business that has little or no land with it? Is the value of that business reduced too?
Third, tax laws allow for delayed payment of federal estate taxes. These provisions can be useful for estates that experience shortages of liquid assets upon the death of the estate owner. Again, I think the tax is just another way of stealing from hard working people that should be able to pass a family business to the next generation without taxation. It is just another form of government intervention into our lives and confiscatory practices of taking from the well off and giving to those less willing or able to make a better wage.