The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is set to expire at the end of 2025. If it’s not renewed, farmers and ranchers will face significant tax hikes. Samantha Ayoub, an associate economist with the American Farm Bureau Federation, says letting these provisions expire puts farmers at risk.
“At the end of the day, taxes are an expense. We already see farmers and ranchers across the country suffering from above-average input expenses across the board, and if taxes were to increase next year, that is just another hit to the expenses on a balance sheet that is already struggling.”
Ayoub says several provisions in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act were designed to boost economic activity and encourage investments.
“If taxes increase, that takes out dollars that farmers can then invest back into their business and back into their community. EY, a consulting firm, estimates that expiration of TCJA provisions would lead to agriculture alone losing 49,000 jobs, which is $3 billion in wages that then can trickle out to $10 billion of economic activity.”
She says some progress has been made on making these provisions permanent, but there’s more work to do.
“We’ve seen the reconciliation package, the one big, beautiful bill, passed the House, and it provided permanency, which is ultimately certainty, and improved upon a lot of the provisions that are important to farmers and ranchers. That is obviously not a completed process. It’s important that those provisions that were kept in (the) House (version) continue into the Senate.”
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