Equipment
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Videos of Wheat Harvest
Just some short clips of wheat harvest near Dixie, Washington (about 12 miles east of Walla Walla, Washington) on Saturday, August 11, 2012. Short clip of harvesting wheat Short clip of grain cart coming up the hill with Dixie/Walla Walla in the background Longer clip of dumping wheat in the grain cart All of these […]
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My Two Days on the Farm
I spent Friday afternoon and all day Saturday cutting wheat for my cousins down in Walla Walla. I started out on Friday driving their older Case IH 2388 and then they kindly allowed me to drive a new Case IH 8230 with about 100 hours on it that they were renting. This is a nice […]
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IRS Announces New 2012 Mileage Rates
The IRS announced this week the new standard mileage rates for 2012. Most of the rates remained the same as the last six months of 2011. For regular business use, the rate is still 55.5 cents per mile (don’t ask me where they came up with the half cent). For charitable purposes, the rate is 14 […]
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Year-end Equipment Flexibility
We had a reader ask the following question: “If I purchase and take delivery of a tractor in December 2011 but do not want any of the depreciation until 2012 can I still get the section 179 and bonus depreciation in 2012?” In order to depreciate equipment such as this tractor in 2011, the farmer must both purchase […]
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Watch Your Section 179 Deduction From Multiple Entities!
With the increased Section 179 deduction available in 2011 of $500,000 farmers need to be very careful if they have ownership in multiple partnerships and S corporations that will be purchasing large amounts of used equipment and deducting it under Section 179. The partnership and S corporation have an overall $500,000 Section 179 limitation on deducting at […]
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Hillside Combining Part 2
We had a reader in Washington state suggest that we try to explain how steep some of these hills are that we harvest in this area. Unless you have been on a combine harvesting a steep hill, it is hard to explain just how steep these hills are. I know that as a child with […]
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How Does Depreciation Recapture Work?
We got the following question from one of our readers: “When does depreciation recapture on equipment kick in? For example a 20 year old tractor fully depreciated sells for $30,000 cash. It cost $50,000 new. Is any of the $30,000 considered a capital gain?” This is a fairly common transaction for many farmers during their […]
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Components May Qualify for 100% Bonus Depreciation
In a post a couple of days ago, I indicated that a new Ag building placed in service after September 8, 2010 but where the construction started before that date would not qualify for 100% bonus depreciation, but would qualify for 50% bonus depreciation. There is one exception to this rule that may help farmers […]
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Watch Your Date of New Construction
The tax law passes late last year had a very favorable tax treatment for the construction of new farm buildings. In that law for any new farm buildings placed in service after September 8, 2010 and before January 1, 2012, a farmer would be able to write off 100% of this new construction cost in […]
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Machinery Companies Not Doing Good
Several of the farm equipment manufacturers that are publicly traded have recently posted their third quarter earnings. In most cases, these earnings were down from last year’s third quarter and in some cases, the amount was down substantially. Agco’s net income was down about 90 percent. The company blamed their earnings short fall on two […]