As Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) recently said, the death tax "hurts the wrong people": the small business and the family farm. That's why the Ways and Means Select Revenue Measures Subcommittee is holding a hearing today on this unfair, unnecessary tax.

Under current law, Uncle Sam takes a 40 percent cut from your taxable estate when a person passes away. But for many families, your "estate" is your business or farm. And this big of a tax bill can be devastating. The Joint Economic Committee recently reported that the estate tax is the "overwhelming cause of dissolution of family businesses." In fact, family businesses and farms are far more likely than other estates to face a tax bill bigger than their liquid assets.

To better understand the challenges of planning for—and paying—the death tax, the subcommittee will explore the threats to three big victims of the death tax:

• Family businesses, especially those with a lot of physical assets or inventory, face real burdens when planning for the death tax.

• Family farms constantly feel the pull of suburbanization, which increases land values and disrupts long-standing agricultural patterns. Often the death tax forces families to sell their land to developers. 

• Ranchers face changes in the values of land and cattle, which can create tax liabilities where none existed, or can make paying the death tax extremely difficult.

The death tax's defenders argue that it's an effective tool to redistribute wealth. But in fact, it generates a "negligible amount of revenue," according to the JEC. No matter how you look at it, this tax is just not worth the pain and heartache it causes.  

That's why Rep. Brady has introduced H.R. 1105, the Death Tax Repeal Act of 2015. Our nation was built on small, family-owned businesses. Families have worked hard for years to pass on opportunity to their children. And our tax code shouldn't punish but reward them.

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