Farm Industry Trends
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TEPAP – Day 1
All this week I am at the The Executive Program for Agricultural Producers (TEPAP) in Austin, Texas. This is an all week intensive program put on by the Texas A & M University and hosted by Danny Klinefelter. I am very excited to attend the program and will try to post at least one blog […]
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Top 5 Trend – Estate Tax Changes!
I was not sure if I would be able to write this post a month ago, but Congress and the President came through with some very good changes to the estate law. Beginning in 2011, the top rate will fall to 35% from 55% and estate will only be come taxable $5 million up from […]
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Top 5 Trend of 2010 – High Commodity Prices
I think one of the major trends for 2010 and going into 2011 is the continuing high level of commodity prices for most grains, livestock, sugar, cotton, etc. In 2008, we had high level of prices in the grains, however, the pricing for livestock was much lower and cotton was close to a $1 cheaper […]
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Top 5 Trend – Obama Care
We will be posting each day this week a top 5 trend or item for 2010. It may be related to taxes or other items that have affected farmers either in 2010 or looking forward to 2011. Our first top 5 item is Obama Care. This is actually the result of two bills that were […]
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World Corn Production Could Double Using US Methods!
The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City publishes several good Ag related articles each year. They recently did a quick snapshot of the US Ag Economy and one of the slides represented the current corn production for the world. The graph showed the actual production for 2009 and the anticipated production assuming each country would […]
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A Trade-In Can Cost You $15,000 in Tax!
Many farmers mistakenly assume that if they have a used piece of farm machinery and they want to get a newer piece to replace it, that a trade-in always saves them money at tax time. However, in many cases, this is not true and in fact, can cost the farmer up to $15,000 in self-employment […]
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Which 2010 Estate Tax Election will you Make?!
One of the benefits of the proposed Tax Relief Act may apply to any estate arising in 2010. Under the proposed rules, the estate can elect to either be: Taxed under the current 2010 rules (no estate tax, but limited basis adjustment to fair market value), or Use the new proposed 2011 rules (possible estate tax, […]
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IRS Adds New Form For Health Insurance Credit
The IRS has released final guidance for claiming the new health insurance premium credit on your tax return for 2010, along with new Form 8941 (Credit for Small Employer Health Insurance Premiums) and related instructions. Remember that if you employ 10 or less farm employees and their average pay is less than $25,000, you can get […]
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How Will You Transfer the Farm?!
I ran across another thought provoking article in Cornhusker Economics. In the article, they performed an analysis of farmers in Nebraska based upon their ages. In 1982, 13,436 farmers in Nebraska were under age 35. In the most recent census in 2007, this number had dropped to 3,353 or a 75 percent decrease. The number […]
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Farmland Turnover drops by 50%
One of the recent issues of Cornhusker Economics put out by the University of Nebraska Department of Agricultural Economics showed how the farmland turnover for the current year is about half of the long-term trend. The market for farmland has historically been a “thin” market in that very little is marketed and changes in ownership […]