Farm Industry Trends
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A Bad Day in Court
The Tax Court today released the Kaplan case. Gary Kaplan was a professional sports bookie. He started his career in the US and then moved it to the Caribbean before finally settling in Costa Rica. During this time, he formed a company called BetOnSports PLC. This company became the most successful overseas sports booking company […]
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Permanent Means Permanent
Many farmers will sell or grant a conservation easement to various organizations. These easements are designed to permanently keep certain farm land out of production due to their sensitive topsoils or other features. If the granting of the easement is structured properly, the difference between the fair market value of the land before the easement and the value […]
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When to Report Hedging Gains and Losses?
We had a reader send in the following questions: “We have an accrual basis farm partnership, for income statement purposes we have used the mark to market approach to the value of the hedge which was at a gain. For income tax purposes can we report the gain or loss when the hedge is closed?” […]
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Labor Department asks Judge to Overturn ‘Hot Goods’ Ruling
Updating an earlier post regarding “hot goods,” the U.S. Labor Department claims a judge committed legal error by overturning “hot goods” settlements between the agency and Oregon farmers. According to the U.S. Labor Department, the judge accepted “unsupported allegations at face value” from the farmers when he ruled the deals should be revoked. The ruling’s […]
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How Much Longer for Section 1031 Exchanges?
In the budget proposal just released by President Obama, he calls for a cap on the amount of gain that could be deferred under Section 1031. This cap would be $1 million each year indexed for inflation. The tax reform proposals released by both the Senate and the House call for major changes to like-kind […]
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Additional Tax Reform Items
Last week, we had a quick overview of the tax reform proposals put forth by Dave Camp of the House Ways and Means Committee. After reading about the proposal further, there are some additional items that would affect farmers. Remember, this is just a proposal and nothing will happen this year. There is a chance […]
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AICPA National Ag Conference
Just a reminder that the AICPA National Ag Conference is about two months away. It will be held in Austin, Texas on Wednesday, May 7 to Friday May 9 and the conference will provide lots of information for CPAs who service the Ag industry. Several topics will be covered, including: The Global Landscape of Agriculture and […]
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When Will Productivity Start Increasing Again?
Co Bank provides loans to cooperatives and other Farm Credit Service banks across the country. They also issue a monthly Outlook and for the February issue, Lee Ohanian, an economist with UCLA was interviewed regarding the lack of growth in productivity over the last few years. In layman’s terms, productivity represents the growth in total […]
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Tax Reform – Part ?????!!!!!
Dave Camp, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee issued another tax reform proposal today. Since this is a mid-term election year, it has little chance of passing this year, but it is important to note possible changes that Congress is pondering. The major ones affecting farmers are as follows: For individuals, create […]
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Some Quick Thoughts on the 2012 Ag Census
The USDA released a preliminary 2012 Ag Census report last week. This report provides summarized information on the number and types of farms by state. More detailed information will be released later on in the year. Some of my quick thoughts on this preliminary release are (comparisons will be to the 2007 Ag Census): Total US […]