November, 2015
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Final 2014 ARC-CO Data is Now Online
The USDA late last week posted final data for 2014 ARC-CO for most crops. There are certain crops that have not been finalized, but almost all of the major crop information has been posted. The spreadsheet provides data on the yields from 2009-2014 which is required to calculate your Olympic average yield, the actual 2014 […]
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Crop Insurance Under Attack Again
After having a proposed $3 billion reduction in crop insurance funding included in the Budget Bill passed last month, farmers now face another attack by crop insurance critics that want to increase that reduction to at least $25 billion over 10 years. Their proposal includes the following changes: Eliminating the Harvest Price Option (this would save […]
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Does 7 Equal 5?
Senator Roberts (R-KS) and Senator Klobuchar (D-KS) introduced bipartisan legislation last month to allow farmers to depreciate farm equipment over five years instead of the current seven years. “Changing the depreciation schedule for agricultural equipment to five years would make the tax code more consistent and support rural development by aligning the length of time that […]
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Social Security Potpourri
In our last post, we had indicated that the option to “File and Suspend” for social security benefits is coming to an end. This post will expand on that a bit. Under the “File and Suspend” method, married couples could have the higher income spouse elect to file for benefits (currently age 66), but then suspend the […]
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File & Suspend Will Be No More
The budget bill that was finalized this week eliminates a strategy for social security recipients called “File and Suspend”. Under this strategy, the high income earner could file for benefits, allow his lower earning spouse to get benefits before full retirement age and then “suspend” their benefits until age 70 to lock in the additional […]