March, 2016
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When to Take “Extra” Investment Interest?
I see many more farmers now with investment brokerage accounts. Some of these farmers have borrowed against these accounts and the margin interest paid is considered investment interest and the tax deduction may be limited. A farmer (or other taxpayer), trust or estate can deduct this interest only to the extent of net investment income. […]
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Danger, Will Robinson
For those of us old enough to remember the TV show “Lost in Space’, there was a common saying “Danger, Will Robinson”. That show has been off the air for far longer than my oldest son (age 29), but the ACA provides some of its own “Danger”. Individuals who acquire health insurance through an ACA […]
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Are You 70 1/2?
If you have retirement or IRA accounts and you are approaching age 70 1/2, you must be careful to make sure to take your required minimum distributions (RMD) and April 1 can be a key deadline. Holders of these accounts are normally required to start taking RMDs in the year they turn 70 1/2, however, […]
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Expanded Cost Basis Reporting is Here! Are you Ready?
The Surface Transportation and Veterans Health Care Improvement Act of 2015 (those two don’t really go together) added new tax laws that require executors to file cost basis information with the IRS. This is required only when there is a taxable estate. The rules on implementing this can be complicated, but I wanted to provide […]
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Iowa Governor Branstad Finally Signs Coupling Bill
In the past, Iowa has always coupled Section 179 and other tax extender provisions with the IRS when these items are extended. However, with the passage of the new tax laws back in December including making Section 179 permanent at the $500,000 level (indexed to inflation), Iowa Governor Branstad initially balked at the idea of […]
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IRS Interest Rates Finally Start to Rise
It seems like forever that the interest that the IRS will pay or collect on tax refunds/underpayments has been stuck at 3%. The IRS just announced today that beginning April 1, 2016, the interest rate will rise to 4% for most taxpayers. In some case, large corporations will pay 6% on refunds and will only […]
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When Not To Take A Discount?
When a farmer has a taxable estate, we usually try to obtain a discount by splitting up land ownership into “fractional” ownership. This is usually accomplished by putting the land into some type of limited liability entity (LLE). Most of the court cases have found that a discount of around 35% is permissible when farmland […]
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Two Opportunities for Farm and Estate Tax Education
Clifton Larson Allen is pleased to offer two seminars this summer for farmers, CPAs, attorneys and anyone else who is interested in a two-day seminar on farm and estate taxation. I will be a presenter at the seminars. The first seminar will be held Thursday and Friday June 9 and 10 in Cullowhee, North Carolina at Western Carolina […]
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Final FSA Yields More Likely to be Under NASS Yields?
There is a lot of chatter regarding the lack of ARC-CO payments for the 2014 crop year due to yields coming in higher than what farmers might have expected for their county. When we were doing Farm Bill analysis about two years ago, we had taken a look at how final FSA yields compared to […]
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Crop Insurance Premiums Likely Lower This Year
The University of Illinois in their FarmDoc Daily just released an update on where crop insurance premiums may range for the 2016 crop year. A small blessing from low prices and low volatility is that premiums will likely be lower than in prior years (I think most farmers would rather pay higher premiums with higher […]