Letters to Washington
| October 28, 2021

Letter to the Committee on Ways and Means Opposing Proposed Changes to the Grantor Trust and Valuation Rules in H.R. 5376

The undersigned organizations, representing millions of individually- and family-owned businesses, strongly urge you to reject the proposed changes to the grantor trust and valuation rules in H.R. 5376, the Build Back Better Act. Individually- and family-owned businesses are the cornerstone of the American economy. They represent nearly all businesses, they employ the vast majority of private sector workers, and they are the building block upon which innumerable communities across this country are built. Many individual and family business owners, including family businesses with ownership shares held in trust, will be directly harmed by the tax increases resulting from these proposals. The changes related to the taxation of grantor trusts would eliminate the usefulness of the grantor trust for normal and legitimate business (non-tax) purposes, such as facilitating the transfer of business ownership between generations and protecting assets from liability or creditor claims of a trust beneficiary.