I agree that there are legal strategies to avoid estate tax. I also strenuously agree that avoiding probate with estate planing should be in the plan for anybody who has any assets.

My concern with estate taxes is, like I said, the potential destruction of functioning businesses-- just what was discussed in the article.

I know the tax code has provisions to permit an extension of up to fourteen years for payment. There's a non-tax-deductible interest expense, though. A business with low margins might not be able to absorb that expense even over a 14 year time window.

In the end I'm probably thinking too theoretically. Perhaps there are no real businesses large enough to exceed the estate tax exemption that haven't otherwise planned for succession.

I may just be getting "the feels" about theoretical jobs being destroyed in service of taxation.

re: small business

In my mind, at least, a business w/ a $30 million capitalization is a small business. Where I am (rural Ohio) a decently-sized family farming operation could hit that $30M cap (with land prices being what they are now). That's between 1,500 and 2,000 acres of farmland at market price. That doesn't take into account potentially inflated valuations as a result of datacenter speculators. In my county we've seen a Meta datacenter project pay 10x market value for farmland (resulting in skewed property tax valuations across the entire county).