Farm Trends
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China Companies Continue to Buy Up Farm Land
The Wall Street Journal had an article yesterday on how Chinese companies are continuing to invest in South America especially in buying up farm land to feed their people. Through the twelve month period ended May 31, 2011, the China’s investment in Latin America had hit $15.6 billion. During the last three years, more than […]
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Follow Me On Twitter
Just a reminder that you can now follow me on Twitter. I had set up my account last year, but with all of the changes with my accounting firm, I had not had a chance to take advantage of using Twitter for quick posts through out the day. I will be using Twitter to update […]
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Golf Course Falls Victim to High Grain Prices
The new owner of the Whittemore Golf Course in Algona, Iowa has plowed it under to put in a corn crop for this year. This nine hole course was originally built in 1969. The new buyer decided that it would make more money as a farm than as a golf course. This has caused some rift […]
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Supreme Court to Decide Tax Spat Between Circuit Courts
The Supreme Court has decided to hear a case involving a dispute between the Ninth Circuit on one side and the Eighth and Tenth Circuit on the other side concerning the issue of who owes the tax on the capital gains arising from a Chapter 12 farm bankruptcy. In most normal bankruptcies, the capital gain […]
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Don’t Be A Hobby Farm
Many of our readers will ask us questions about starting a farm, however, when discussing it with them, many of them are talking about a hobby farm and not a real farm. For tax purposes, a hobby farm has some very unfavorable consequences to the farmer. Net income is always reported, however, a net loss […]
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If Grain Markets Are Topping, Start Locking In Profits
During 2008, grain markets were almost as high as they are now, however, many farmers were not able to take advantage of these prices either through already having their crop sold or through inaction by the farmers. I don’t know how many times I have heard a farmer in my office or out in the […]
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Goodbye Pesky New 1099 Reporting
As we have posted here several times, last year, a new law was put into place that required reporting of all transactions over $600 to any vendor in a year. This included paying gas to the local coop, buying your fertilizer, etc. Yesterday, the Senate passed a bill which President Obama is expected to sign […]
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Time for a Fiscal Checkup!
One of the things that struck me about attending both the TEPAP and the Top Producer Conference is how many of our top farmers are still not taking advantage of all of the financial tools available to them. For example, I would estimate that probably upwards of 90% of all farmers are still using the […]
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Merry Christmas!
Just wanted to wish all of our readers a Merry Christmas and we at Farm CPA Today.com appreciate your readership throughout 2010. Just last week, we had our largest number of unique visitors for one day and we just want to thank you for your support. Again, Merry Christmas and have a very good 2011.
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Cropland Prices Rise More Than 6%
The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City (representing Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and the Mountain States) just reported that non-irrigated farmland prices for the year-over-year ended September 30, 2010 rose more than 6%. Irrigated cropland was up an even more robust 9.6%. After dipping slightly in the third quarter of 2009, prices have risen each […]