Date: 9/27/2017

Title: Cattlemen “Very Pleased” That Tax-Reform Blueprint Includes Death Tax Repeal, Will Fight to Maintain Existing Positive Provisions in Tax Code

WASHINGTON (Sept. 27, 2017) — Craig Uden, President of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, today released the following statement in response to the “Unified Framework” for comprehensive tax reform legislation:

“Our Nation’s cattle producers are very pleased that President Trump and Republican leaders in Congress have maintained their long-standing commitment to American agriculture by including a full repeal of the onerous death tax in the Unified Framework for Fixing Our Broken Tax Code. We look forward to working with the Administration and lawmakers on Capitol Hill as pen meets paper on tax legislation, and will continue to demonstrate how the death tax and its associated costs adversely affect family-owned operations and the rural communities they support.

“Also, current provisions in the tax code that help livestock producers maintain economically viable businesses and support the success of future generations of farmers and ranchers must be preserved. Stepped-up basis, cash accounting, like-kind exchanges, cost recovery, and the deductibility of interest payments are just a handful of the provisions that allow agricultural producers to survive despite the many challenges we face, from market volatility and fluctuating input prices, to droughts, wildfires, and floods, to the challenge of generational transfers. We’ll closely monitor these provisions as more details on legislative language become available, and intend to fight tooth and nail for a tax code that supports America’s beef producers.”

Throughout September, NCBA has executed an extensive online media campaign to promote comprehensive tax reform. The group yesterday released the campaign’s fourth video, which has collected more than 57,000 views in less than 24 hours. As the end of the campaign draws to a close, the videos featuring beef producers have already been viewed a combined 317,000 times and have reached more than 590,000 people on Facebook.