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Effect of the federal estate tax on nonindustrial private forest holdings

Informally Refereed

Abstract

Data for this study were collected using a questionnaire mailed to randomly selected members of two forest owner organizations. Among the key findings is that 38% of forest estates owed federal estate tax, a rate many times higher than US estates in general. In 28% of the cases where estate tax was due, timber or land was sold because other assets were not adequate. In 29% of the cases where land was sold, it was converted to a more developed use. Questionnaires also were mailed to randomly selected individuals from a national database of rural landowners for comparison with forest owners. For most of the characteristics surveyed, there was no statistical difference between responses from the two groups.

Keywords

nonindustrial private forests, estate tax, forest conversion, Dillman Total Design Method

Citation

Greene, John L.; Bullard, Steven H.; Cushing, Tamara L.; Beauvais, Theodore. 2006. Effect of the federal estate tax on nonindustrial private forest holdings. Journal of Forestry: 15-20
https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/33002