Sens. John Hoeven and Kevin Cramer along with the entire Senate Republican caucus, are urging President Biden not to increase taxes on farmers and ranchers.

They urged him to abandon his effort to impose a capital gains tax increase on family-owned businesses, farms, and ranches by repealing a part of the tax code commonly referred to as “step-up in basis” or “stepped up basis.” The senators argue such a repeal would have a devastating effect on multi-generation operations, which could lead to job losses, liquidation, or outright closure.

“These (proposed) changes are a significant tax increase that would hit family-owned businesses, farms, and ranches hard, particularly in rural communities,” the senators wrote. “These businesses consist largely of illiquid assets that will in many cases need to be sold or leveraged in order to pay the new tax burden. Making these changes could force business operators to sell property, lay off employees, or close their doors just to cover these new tax obligations. The complexity and administrative difficulty of tracking basis over multiple generations and of valuing assets that are not up for sale will lead to colossal implementation problems and could also lead to huge tax bills that do not accurately reflect any gains that might have accumulated over time. As you will recall, a proposal to reach a similar outcome by requiring an heir to ‘carry-over’ the decedent’s tax basis was tried before in 1976–and failed so spectacularly it never came into effect. It was postponed in 1978 and repealed in 1980.”