David Funderburk: “I have often said that farmers are the backbone of my district. The Second District of North Carolina from Rocky Mount…”

“I have often said that farmers are the backbone of my district. The Second District of North Carolina from Rocky Mount to Dunn is the second largest producer of tobacco in America. We also have hundreds of soybean, peanut, and livestock farms. Unfortunately, Washington treats these hard working Americans like criminals. It taxes and regulates them. A classic example of Washington's war on farmers is the tax penalty the IRS imposes on those who pass farmland down to their family members. Farmers have 2 years to notify the IRS that someone has died. The catch is that the IRS has not make hundreds of farm families aware of this requirement. For farmers who do not have time to read the IRS fine print, the tax police demand back taxes and penalties which are so severe, that these farmers are now in the position of having to sell their farms to pay the tax man. Mr. Speaker, the farmer has had enough--enough of interference, enough of redtape, and enough of the IRS. Let us do something right for the men and women who put the food on the table. For starters let us pass H.R. 501, which allows farm families to hand their and down from each generation without fear of the IRS.”