They say that nothing is sure in life except death and taxes, so you should be prepared for a combination of both in the end.
Cliff Polk, estate planning specialist and founder and president of Rocky Mountain Financial Group, provdedd members of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) Tax and Credit policy committee meeting on Friday with an in depth overview of the tax package passed by Congress at the end of 2010 that included language to reduce the top rate of the estate tax, commonly known as the death tax, to 35 percent and increase the exemption level to $5 million. He reminded producers that proper planning is necessary to ensure they meet estate tax exclusion levels. “Each family has to look at their operation as a business and determine the best succession plan. The next tax law will provide necessary relief from this onerous tax, but family-owned ranches need to take steps today to properly plan for the future of their operations. This industry, your industry, relies on it.”
Another sure thing for agricultural producers in this day and age is environmental regulations and one of the latest is the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) plan to implement the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) rule.
USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Chief Dave White talked about that issue at the NCBA Property Rights and Environmental Management Committee meeting on Friday. An NRCS report, “Assessment of the Effects of Conservation Practices on Cultivated Cropland in the Chesapeake Bay Region,” came up with very different estimates of pollutant loads to the Chesapeake Bay compared to EPA. White believes EPA’s data is flawed when it comes to agriculture.
“Where we have a problem is we think this Bay model is not 100 percent accurate when it comes to agriculture,” White said. “There is just some erroneous stuff in there. We believe 88 percent of cropland (in the Bay areas) is under no-till. EPA is saying 50 percent. That’s a big, big difference.”
The NRCS chief was also at the convention Thursday night to honor the winners of the 20th annual national Environmental Stewardship Awards (ESA) program, which recognizes American farmers and ranchers as the number one stewards of the environment and annually pays tribute to the best of the best around the country.
2011 Cattle Industry Convention Photos
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