Kenny Hulshof: “I think what needs to be mentioned, Mr. Speaker, is that under present law, certain estates are shielded from the…”

“I think what needs to be mentioned, Mr. Speaker, is that under present law, certain estates are shielded from the Federal death tax and that exemption or that unified credit, to talk the terminology, presently is under $700,000. If you consider a family farm anywhere across the country but certainly in Missouri, let us say if you have a 400-acre farm and let us say for the purposes of this hypothetical, $1500 per acre, some places in Missouri that would be low, some places in Missouri perhaps high but I think on average if you say $1500 per acre average, for a 400-acre farm, right there you are talking about a $600,000 value just on land, not mentioning equipment that is needed to produce, not talking about the residence or the home. My friend from Colorado mentioned his constituent, having grown up and being born and grown up in the residence and worrying about being able to hang on to that asset. Life insurance proceeds, all of this becoming part of the estate that now is subject to the tax. Once that estate value is $1 more than the exemption, you are looking at about a 37 percent tax rate up to, as the gentleman says, over half, 55 percent and in some instances as high as 60 percent. The point I would like to make is this, and I hope tomorrow as we have this debate, I really would encourage or challenge anybody who opposes this to give me a good policy reason why we have an inheritance tax. Really what is the reason?”