Farm Leadership

  • Taxpayers Want Their Cake, Frosting and Candles!

    In a Tax Court case issued on Monday, October 21 (Van Alen and Tomlinson vs. Commissioner), we find taxpayers who inherited farmland property subject to a Special Use Valuation adjustment under Section 2032A.  This adjustment allows an estate to elect to reduce the value of the land from its “true” fair market value downwards to […]

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  • IRS Releases List of Counties Eligible for Another Year of Livestock Deferral

    Each year the IRS releases a list of those counties affected by drought in the US.  This list is used by ranchers to determine if they have an additional year to defer the gain from selling excess livestock due to drought.  Section 1033 allows ranchers a four-year period to reinvest proceeds from the sale of […]

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  • 2012 Tax Season Officially Bites the Dust

    Most farmers are used to a March 1 tax filing deadline.  However, for many other farmers and other taxpayers, the final individual tax deadline is not April 15 but rather October 15.  And like many of us from our school days, there are certain taxpayers that like to procrastinate (and procrastinate and so on).  As usual, […]

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  • Watch our for FBAR

    A new very nasty four letter word is FBAR which stands for Foreign Bank Account Report.  In a recent court case that is outlined at the Center for Agricultural Law and Taxation (CALT), a taxpayer lost a case with the IRS regarding an assessment of penalties under the FBAR program that were determined during a regular […]

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  • Case IH 9230 vs. JD S680

    This farm boy gets the ultimate treat this weekend. I have a meeting in Des Moines on Monday and decided to fly out today to Cedar Rapids. I am going to visit some clients / friends and over the weekend I get to ride/drive both a Case IH 9230 and John Deere S 680 combine. […]

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  • When Zero Equals $380 Now Equals $5,760

    In our last post , we discussed how having net gambling winnings of exactly zero could increase your 2013 income tax liability by $380.  We had a reader pose the following points: “Throw in some Social Security and a little more rent income and see what it does to your tax bill.  Is it possible […]

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  • Ode to Hay

    Here is my first attempt at a FarmCPA Today poem (most likely my last one too) On a perfect sunny afternoon day My client had hay That must be baled Before rain or hail Comes to ruin the day I had never operated a baler Nor been a tailor My client liked cheap labor Normally […]

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  • Department of Labor Waives Penalty

    We have previously provided notice on the requirement to provide notice to your employees by October 1 of the coverage options now available with the new Health Insurance Marketplace.  It was our assumption that if this notice was not properly provided and this omission was determined by the Department of Labor or the IRS, then […]

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  • Monday is Final Due Date for Business Returns

    Monday, September 16 is the final extension due date for almost all 2012 calendar business tax returns (corporations, partnerships and trusts).  If you are unable to file your pass-through business return tomorrow on a timely basis, the penalty will usually be $195 per schedule k1 not file per month late. If you are late with […]

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  • It Only Takes Some Mold to Create a Problem

    Chobani Yogurt Twin Falls, Idaho plant is the largest yogurt facility in the world.  It produces about 1 million cases of yogurt per week and processes about 2-2.5 million pounds of milk per day. I took a trip to Southern Idaho last winter and drove by the plant.  It was almost ready to open and […]

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