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SW Wisconsin | Not sure how qualified I am to offer advice here, I’ll tell you my situation:
My dad is a hard person to work with, but doesn’t care about the farm, and it doesn’t sound like he’s as hard as your dad. I have 9 younger siblings, probably 2-3 of whom would possibly be interested in the farm. After my mom left my dad’s liability to asset ratio was probably running between 95-105%, so we figured it was pretty much a fair swap that I take over the farm and associated liabilities. My one brother was (and still is, I think) slightly sore about it, but at the end of the day everyone, brother included, realizes that he didn’t have a viable plan for keeping the farm afloat and I didn’t get a windfall by getting the farm.
Now for advice that I may or may not be qualified to offer: talk to him about estate taxes. It’s my understanding that if you inherit the farm outright on his death you stand to pay quite a bit in estate taxes. If he transfers ownership to you gradually then not only are you protected from estate taxes, but the farm is (probably, I’m not a lawyer) at least partially safe from nursing home/Medicaid seizure. Take as much pay as possible in the form of a gift (last I checked the limit for a non-taxable personal gift was $10,000/person/year, so he could give you and your wife $20,000/year), again to avoid payroll taxes. For my two cents I would have to guess that if he’s unwilling to give you in-kind wages in the form of part ownership then he probably has no intention of actually letting you inherit the farm. | |
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