Death should not be a taxable event. Anything you leave to your heirs has already been taxed once, and there should be a limit to how many times the government can tax you. Unfortunately, the estate tax, often called the death tax, is a concern for many American farmers, ranchers, and small business owners whose operations could be devastated by this tax. Eliminating the death tax once and for all has long been a priority of mine, and I recently introduced a bill to permanently repeal this fundamentally flawed tax.

I was proud to help secure a doubling of the death tax exemption in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which has protected a lot of farms, ranches, and small businesses. But the larger exemption limit will expire at the end of this year, and it’s my hope that we will not merely extend the exemption, but that we will put an end to the death tax once and for all.

Death tax proponents talk as if it only affects the extremely wealthy, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. The death tax can sweep up those who have very little money in the bank. Take for example a family farm or ranch, which are often cash-poor businesses. They might have substantial-looking assets on paper, but the vast majority of that is land and farming equipment, and a small fraction of it is money in the bank.

So what happens when a farmer or rancher dies and his estate is subject to the tax? There’s a very good chance that his liquid assets – in other words, the cash that he has available in the bank – won’t come close to covering the tax bill from the federal government. The only alternative for his heirs in that case may be to start selling off land or farm equipment to pay the tax. They may be able to keep the farm – just a smaller version of it – or they may have to sell it off entirely. It’s the same plight that many ranches and small businesses face as well.

But it’s not just those who actually get hit by the death tax who suffer. Many family farms, ranches, and small businesses spend a lot of time and money on estate planning to avoid being hit by this tax. That’s time and money that could have gone into building their business, hiring new workers, and investing in their operation. Others set aside capital to prepare for the death tax, which is money that, again, could go into the building up of their operation.

It’s time we end the death tax once and for all. And I hope that 2025 will be the year that we permanently bid farewell to this flawed and unfair tax.