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Passing on the family business can also mean passing on a big tax bill, and family-owned manufacturers are speaking out to keep those bills from getting any bigger.

What’s happening: As part of its “Manufacturing Wins” campaign to preserve 2017 tax reform, the NAM is calling on Congress to secure the law’s changes to the estate tax.

• Tax reform increased the estate tax exemption threshold, which protects some of a family-owned business’s assets from the tax.
• The threshold is set to be slashed in half at the end of 2025, subjecting more of family-owned manufacturers’ assets to taxation and making it harder for them to pass their business on to the next generation.

Protecting physical assets: Manufacturers constantly invest in physical assets like facilities and machinery to stay competitive, making the estate tax especially damaging.

• “We’re not a liquid company,” said Tom Tredway, president of Erie Molded Packaging in Pennsylvania. “Almost every penny we earn is poured back into our business so we can grow and compete. The increased estate tax exemption threshold is set to expire at the end of 2025, which will threaten my ability to pass the business on to my children.”
• “The estate tax doesn’t just hurt family businesses—it hurts the workers,” added Scott Livingston, president and CEO of HORST Engineering in East Hartford, Connecticut. “It also hurts our customers and the communities that we serve.”

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