ESTATE TAX A CONCERN AT NADA SHOW

Dealers Hayden and Gary Reynolds

February 13, 2006—Along with all the workshops, franchise meetings, and general sessions at the NADA convention, one legislative concern also on dealers' minds was the estate tax.

Incoming NADA chairman William Bradshaw noted in his speech today that abolishing the tax—a key NADA objective—was sidetracked in last year's Congress. But he said NADA will work hard to get the legislation passed this year.

And at the debut of the NADA Century Award booth—which honors dealership families who have been in the business for more than 100 years—many attendees discussed the estate tax.

"We might not be able to pass [the business] down if the taxes stay the way they are," said dealer Liza Borches, Volvo of Charlottesville (Va.).

Dealer Gary Reynolds also said his dealership is at risk. Reynolds’s family started out in the transportation business in 1859, when his forebears sold and serviced horsedrawn carriages along the Connecticut River. "You can do careful estate planning," he says, but if something unexpected happens, it can "upset the apple cart."