Farm Leadership
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Update Your “Farms” by Sepember 26
I previously wrote on this subject recently, but want to reinforce that you need to take action before September 26, 2014 in order to make sure you do not end up losing any PLC/ARC benefits for this year. The election for ARC or PLC is done on a farm-by-farm basis which includes the operator (the […]
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Dairy Margin Protection Program Update
I spent Friday in Denver (I found wearing shorts to Denver this time of year may not be a good idea since it was “cold”) getting training on the new Dairy Margin Protection program. The various state universities involved in the online tools development have done a very good job of providing good information that […]
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Have Funds to Cover Your Check
The US Tax Court released a case yesterday that Joe Kristan from the Tax Update Blog did a great job of recapping so I will not go into too much detail since he covers the facts. However, the key point from this case is as follows: If you issue a bonus check at year-end that the […]
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If Landlords Can’t Agree, get new FSN by September 26, 2014
One of the requirements of the new farm bill is that all parties involved in each Farm Serial Number (FSN) must agree on whether to elect PLC or ARC. If the parties cannot agree then no 2014 payment is allowed and the farm is automatically enrolled in PLC for 2015 through 2018. If you have […]
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Be Careful What You Wish For
As part of the new farm bill passed earlier this year is a provision that allows farmers to elect to adjust their APH for any years where the county yield (including contiguous counties) is less than 50% of a ten-year average. These rules were supposed to be put in place in time for the 2015 crop year. The USDA […]
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Partner Must Have Basis to Deduct Loss
In an US Tax Court case that was released yesterday, partners were found not to have tax basis in promissory notes that they “contributed” to the partnership. Farmers will create partnerships to run their operation and since farm tax law allows farm businesses to usually generate a small profit or even a loss; partners must […]
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FSA Grants Date Extension on Filing Farm Structure Changes
The FSA just announced that the deadline to finalize your 2014 farm structure for all programs has been extended to September 26, 2014. Future 2014 Farm Bill Programs will look at the 2014 farm structure for eligibility and other requirements, so any changes or updates must be in place by this new deadline to be […]
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Enrollment for Dairy Margin Management Program Begins September 2
The USDA announced today that the new Dairy Margin Management Program (MPP) will be open for enrollment starting next Tuesday, September 2, 2014. Enrollment will end November 28, 2014 and dairy farmers will be able to retroactively enroll back to September 1 for 2014 and enroll for all of 2015. The elections are separate for 2014 […]
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Watch Out for Timing of Hedging Loss
I hesitate to write this post since I know that most of our farmers who hedge (including their tax advisors) may be technically reporting their hedging loss in the wrong year. In most cases this will not be true, but there are cases where it may happen and if an IRS auditor who knows hedge […]
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How to Sell Your Land and Pay No Tax – MAYBE
I had a reader ask me questions regarding the taxation of an installment sale of farmland. I helped him out and thought it would be a good idea to do another post on how you may be able to sell farm land (or other capital gain assets) in certain situations and pay no federal income […]