Today in Hack Journalism

It's the WSJ, so it's no surprise that their article on a tax break primarily used by speculators is cast as a betrayal of the sacred obligation that we have to family farmers.

It's also not true, but who needs truth if it's dull, I guess

President Biden has said his tax proposals would make big business and wealthy investors pay their fair share.

His package would also likely deliver a blow to American farm owners by limiting a longstanding tax break. The provision allows landowners to defer paying capital-gains tax when they sell investment property and put the proceeds toward the purchase of other real estate.

Farmers for generations have used the tax break to cheaply and quickly relocate farm operations to lands with better soil, diversify the crops they grow and consolidate land holdings. Some have used it when exiting the farming business at retirement. Farm owners in 2012 held 915 million acres, about 40% of the land in the continental U.S.

No, this has been used as a subsidy that primarily benefits speculators, farmers do not change farm the same way that the rest of us change socks, but Wall Street banksters do.

Farmers were hit four years ago when the Trump administration narrowed the use of this tax deferment, known as a 1031 like-kind exchange. The provision, named for a section of the tax code, used to apply to many types of personal property, including farm equipment and livestock. Farmers exchanged their old tractors and upgraded to newer and better ones without having to pay tax on their trade-ins.

A subsidy to farm equipment makers more than it is a tax break to farmers.

Also, who trades in a car or a tractor for more than they paid for it?  There is no gain to tax.

………

Farmers and land brokers said the latest proposal, capping the profits from land sales that can be tax-deferred at $500,000, would add another burden on farming.

Mr. Biden’s proposal would also raise the top capital-gains tax rate that land sellers would have to pay to 43.4% from 23.8%. It would impose capital-gains taxes at death on appreciated asset gains, a change farmers worry will make it difficult to keep land in the family. However, the Agriculture Department has said the plan would exempt farmers from those taxes at death, if the farm remains both owned and operated by family members.

Family farmers are being pushed out of farming as a result of rents charged by seed and agricultural companies, equipment companies selling them equipment that they cannot maintain, and speculators  who drive up the price of land for would be new farmers.

This tax break enriches these who prey on the family farmer, not the family farmer.