Farm Leadership
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Top Estate Planning Mistakes Farmers Make – Part1
We have had several requests to recap Nick Houle’s presentation on the Top Estate Planning Mistakes that Farmers Make presented at the Commodity Classic last week. There are several of them, so I am going to break them down into three or four on a daily basis over the next week or so. The first three […]
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My First Tornado Warning!
I got into Nashville late Thursday night/early Friday morning. Friday morning I headed over to the Gaylord Opryland complex. Wow, what a facility. There was probably five acres or more of glass roofing and it felt like a 10 minute walk from my car to the convention center. I was able to attend the last […]
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Join Us At the Commodity Classic
Tomorrow I head out from warm and sunny Yakima, Washington (after 4 inches of snow the night before) and travel to Nashville, Tennessee for the Commodity Classic. I will be walking the trade show on Friday and on Saturday, Nick Houle from our Minneapolis office will be giving a keynote speech on estate planning from […]
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Update on 2021 Apple Production
It is not too often that we do a post on fruit ag news, but we just recently came across an article in the Good Fruit Grower which is based in my home city of Yakima, Washington. In the article, a Washington State agricultural economist predicted the apple production in the state for 2021. For […]
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Congress Extends 2% Payroll Tax Cut Till End of 2012
Congress late last week passed a new bill (and President Obama has already indicated he will sign it) to extend the 2% payroll tax cut from February 29, 2012 till the end of 2012. This means that your employee’s FICA contribution will remain at 4.2% for the rest of the year instead of the schedule […]
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Don’t Forget Farm Income Averaging
With the March 1 farm tax return deadline rapidly approaching, I want to remind our farmers to make sure they actively review their tax return to see if farm income averaging will save them money this year. Farm income averaging allows you to smooth out your income tax liability for the current year if this […]
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Be Careful When You Value Farm Conversation Easements!
Many farmers want their farm to continue as farmland as long as possible. In many circumstances, they will donate an easement to a conservation charity that will restrict the land to farming and not allow it to be developed. In these cases, the tax laws allow the farmer to take a deduction for the “value” […]
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What Happens If Bonus Depreciation Runs Out?!
At the Top Producer Conference, I received several questions for my opinion regarding if Congress will extend bonus depreciation or if they will increase it from 50% to 100% for 2012. President Obama has already proposed increasing it to 100% for 2012, however, a more major issue is what happens if bonus depreciation stops? In reviewing […]
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Top Producer Seminar – Day Two
Wow, what an action packed day. First, breakfast was at 6 am to get the day started. At 7 am, we had the taping of the show for the US Farm Report to air this weekend. At 8:15, my breakout sessions started. Each one last 55 minutes and were back-to-back-to-back. I thought the last session […]
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Top Producer Seminar – First Day
The Top Producer Seminar started out today with a bang. Peter Zeihan with Stratfor Group gave an interesting presentation on the economic outlook in general and for ag. It was very interesting to see a map with an outline of the world’s river systems and how that has affected the world’s economy over the last […]