Starting Time: 00:00
Hayes D. Brown, attorney and forest owner, will moderate this news conference. Hayes’ email address is hbrown@hayesbrown.com.
Starting Time: 00:52
Garrett Watson is a Senior Policy Analyst at the Tax Foundation. The Biden Administration has been vocal about wanting to make major tax changes, including repealing the step-up in basis. Under current tax law, taxpayers pay taxes on capital gains when they sell an asset for a profit. The current law also allows taxpayers to maintain assets with unrealized capital gains and pass those along to heirs upon their death. When the second scenario occurs, the asset’s tax basis is “stepped up” to the fair market value and the heir receiving the asset is not required to pay capital gains tax. That’s precisely what President Biden is aiming to change: he wants capital gains tax to be paid regardless. In a recent article, Garrett examined the history of attempts made to change the step-up in basis and why it could prove to be a dangerous road. Garrett will enlighten us on that interesting history and explain how an attempt to change step-up in basis will greatly–and negatively–affect many forest owners.
Starting Time: 05:35
Jessica Little is manager of the Ad Valorem Tax Department at Larson & McGowin. Larson & McGowin represent many timber landowners in Alabama who are receiving tax bills with fire district dues, despite the fact that legislation was passed to ban the collection of fire district fees in rural areas for forest fire control. State Senator Greg Albritton (R) of District #22 sponsored the legislation (Senate Bill 282) two years ago, yet several local property tax authorities are ignoring the law, despite the law specifically stating that “the authority and responsibility for the control and coordination of fire prevention, fire protection and fire fighting services on land treated as timber land for ad valorem tax purposes shall be under the jurisdiction of the Alabama Forestry Commission.” Jessica will speak with us about her experience and the questions timber landowners should be asking.
Does your just-arrived property tax bill contain an amount for fire district dues?
Starting Time: 08:58
Corey Craig is the CEO of IVM Solutions and Co-Owner of IVM Forestry. An industry leader in chemical and mechanical vegetation management solutions, IVM Solutions utilizes the latest technology–including drones–to provide those much-needed services. Corey will join us to talk about the ever-changing technology how it can help landowners, and what it means to the industry.
Starting Time: 11:26
David Strickland is a writer with Great Days Outdoors. While deer hunting has long eclipsed squirrel hunting as Alabama’s most hunted game animal, squirrel hunting is a fun opportunity to get outside and offers a much longer season to enjoy it. The current squirrel season in Alabama begins September 11 and ends March 6. In the October issue of Great Days Outdoors, David’s article “How to Hunt Squirrels” (page 8) shares helpful information about why squirrel hunting is not only fun, but is a great way to get children interested in being outdoors.
