More about Paul Neiffer
Paul Neiffer is a certified public accountant and business advisor specializing in income taxation, accounting services, and succession planning for farmers and agribusiness processors. Paul is a principal with CliftonLarsonAllen in Walla Walla, Washington, as well as a regular speaker at national conferences and contributor at agweb.com. Raised on a farm in central Washington, he has been immersed in the ag industry his entire life, including the last 30 years professionally. Paul and his wife purchase an 180 acre ranch in 2016 and enjoy keeping it full of animals.
Blog Posts by Paul Neiffer:
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Firms Pass Up Tax Breaks Due to Hassles and Costs
The Wall Street Journal published a front page article (you may need to be a subscriber to read the full article) today on how many small and large businesses are passing up the chance to take advantage of certain tax benefits due to the hassles and costs associated with IRS compliance. We have seen many […]
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Senate Makes No Proposed Changes to Estate Tax in Extension Bill
Senate Democrats removed any mention of the estate tax in a Bill that is currently headed to the floor. This propsed Bill will now extend the 2001 and 2003 “Bush” tax cuts for families earning $250,000 or less. An earlier version of the Bill would have included a maximum estate tax rate of 45% while dropping the exclusion […]
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Plan for 2012 Crop Insurance Proceeds
Based on this year’s drought, we know that this will most likely be the largest amount of crop insurance claims ever processed. With proper planning, you may be able to structure when to report these crop insurance proceeds to achieve the best tax advantage for this year. Crop insurance proceeds due to crop damage (not […]
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Medicare Premiums Qualify Are Deductible Above the Line (in some cases)
The IRS just announced a formal change in the long-held position on the deductibility of Medicare premiums (normally withheld from Social Security Benefits). Until about 2009, the IRS position was that a self-employed taxpayer (including partners and more than 2% S corporation shareholders) could not deduct Medicare premiums above the “line” as part of the […]
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How to Pick a Futures Broker!
In response to the bankruptcy filing of Peregrine Financial Group this week and the MF Global filing last year, these are some of red flags to watch out for in picking a broker (or continuing) to handle your futures trading and hedging: Review the financial information that is available regarding the financial health of the […]
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That Did Not Take Long!
The Senate failed today to limit debate on their small business tax bill after (as usual) Democrats and Republicans disagreed about proposed amendments to the bill. The Senate voted 73-24 to table the Republican-favored amendment containing the text of the House-passed small business bill (H.R. 9) that would have provided for the 20% small business deduction […]
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White House Proposes Increasing Section 179 Deduction in 2013 to $250,000
The White House just announced several initiatives today including increasing the Section 179 deduction for 2013 from the current $25,000 amount to $250,000. This will require Congress to update the law to reflect this amount, so the change of this happening is not certain. However, the mood of Congress and the President is to help […]
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Peregrine Financial Group Files for Bankruptcy
Peregrine Financial Group of Cedar Falls, Iowa filed for bankruptcy protection yesterday. The National Futures Association had received information that the company’s founder had, for many years, falsified bank confirmations indicating over $225 million in the bank account when in fact, the account may have contained only $5 million or less. The founder, Russell Wasendorf, SR. […]
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Senate Bill 2237 Appears to be on the Fast Track
Due to the last three lackluster monthly jobs reports, the Senate appears to be trying to fast track Senate Bill 2237 “Small Business Jobs and Tax Relief Act” to passage. This bill provides the following: A new income tax credit equal to 10% of the excess compensation paid in 2012 over 2011. These compensation levels […]
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Most Farmers Would Prefer House Over Senate Farm Bill
Texas A & M just published a very good report on the key differences between the House and Senate Farm Bill. The report indicated that for almost all farmers, the House version of the farm bill would provide more revenue over the five year period than the Senate version and in the case of lower […]