Rep. McNerney introduces act to help small business
By Phil Molnar – Special to
the Dispatch
ed****@****ic.com
GILROY
If you own a farm, don’t die before you give it to someone.
The state’s estate tax, or “death tax,” has frustrated small businesses, farmers, ranchers and growers all across the country for years and late last week, 11th Congressional District outrage finally turned into action.
Congressman Jerry McNerney (D- Pleasanton) introduced The Family Farm, Small Business, and Home Tax Relief Act, legislation intended to create an estate tax exemption for family farms and small businesses.
The estate tax is nicknamed the “death tax” because it taxes the transfer of a deceased person’s estate.
The amount an individual is taxed is based on the value of the property.
“When you’re dead you don’t pay (the estate tax) – your kids do,” said McNerney’s spokesperson Andy Stone.
“I’ve met with small-business owners from all across the 11th district (San Joaquin, Alameda, Contra Costa and Santa Clara County) who are concerned about burdening their loved ones with a hefty tax when they pass their businesses and farms on to the next generation,” McNerney said.
Support for the bill comes from several business owners, including George Guglielmo, the owner of Emilio Guglielmo Winery in Morgan Hill.
“I think it is a very good act,” he said. “It isn’t just the big people getting taxed. We have been in Morgan Hill for 60-plus years and as our land value goes up, the tax for the property is exorbitant, and we won’t have that kind of money.”
“My grandfather didn’t buy this land to speculate on and we shouldn’t have to pay such a high (estate tax) when we are only using the land for farming,” said Guglielmo in reference to rising land values in Santa Clara County.
The bill also provides a $2 million estate tax exemption for a family home, provided the owner has lived in the home for five years and is registered with the Internal Revenue Service.
It is unclear when the act will be voted on but “in all likelihood it will be in 2008,” according to Stone.
McNerney is currently soliciting support for the bill in Congress.
