>Pretty sure farmers don't buy them tax free? [...], but they still foot the rest of the tax burden.

To clarify, this isn't about the farmer paying a "sales tax" or VAT as % of the price of buying the tractor.

The article is talking about something else: paying additional machine taxes to cover the loss of unemployed crop workers that would have been paying individual income taxes.

> Pretty sure farmers don't buy them tax free?

I do. Agriculture products are zero-rated. But obviously it depends on jurisdiction.