Former Democratic senator says Biden’s plan to tax assets at death would hurt family businesses

Former Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, one of the Democratic Party’s leading voices on tax policy, said President Joe Biden’s proposal to tax appreciated assets upon death would hurt family farms and family-owned businesses.

“I’m trying to sound the alarm, both economically and politically, for Democrats that this is not a path to walk,” she said Wednesday in an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “The disruption that it would create for small family business and farmers and family assets is not worth the pain.”

Biden has proposed taxing appreciated assets at death for income over $1 million. He has also touted increasing the capital gains tax to ordinary income rates. The plan will be debated as part of the reconciliation bill in Congress. Under Biden’s proposal, individuals who inherit private businesses or property worth millions could face an immediate capital gains tax of 40%.