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$500,000 Permanent Section 179 Could be Coming Soon!
The House Ways and Means Committee is expected to vote on seven expired tax provisions on February 4, including making permanent Section 179 expensing at the $500,000 level. The current level for 2015 is $25,000 and for any farmer who spends more than $225,000 on equipment during the year, the amount allowed is zero. Another […]
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ARC for Low Yields – PLC for High Yields
Many farmers will not elect 100% ARC or PLC. Even if ARC-CO will make a large 2014-crop corn payments, most will try elect some PLC on acres just in case substantially lower prices might occur in 2015-2018. In those cases, the firm rule of thumb is to elect PLC on your highest yielding farms first, elect […]
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Additional CBO Analysis
Yesterday, we posted on the new baseline study just released by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Today, I will add some additional analysis gleaned from the report: The CBO is projecting that many growers will sign up for ARC-IC and payments will range from about $350 to 707 million during the five-year life of the […]
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How Accurate is CBO on PLC and ARC
The Congressional Budget Office just released their updated baseline report for all farm programs. This baseline is an update from last April’s baseline and although their estimate of farm PLC and ARC payments may be fairly accurate over the 10 years of their projections, I highly doubt the accuracy of their projections for the 2014 […]
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Possible Maximum ARC-CO and PLC 2014 Payments
The University of Illinois in their FarmDoc Daily report released estimated ARC and PLC payments by state last week. For corn, the payments ranged from a low of zero for ARC-CO in multiple states (those with higher than average yields in 2014). Some of the key corn-growing states with estimated ARC-CO payments of zero were Kansas and Missouri. Each […]
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IRS Scammers Net $14 Million from 3,000 Victims
The pervasive IRS impersonation phone scam has claimed nearly 3,000 victims who have collectively paid over $14 million, according to a new warning from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA). According to the TIGTA, they have received reports of around 290,000 cases due to this scam from taxpayers since October 2013. In the […]
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2 Senators Work to Eliminate Capital Gains Tax on Chapter 12 Bankruptcies
Senator Grassley (D-Iowa) and Senator Franken (D-Minn) proposed a bill today in the Senate to eliminate capital gains tax that a farmer may owe when selling property after entering a Chapter 12 bankruptcy. Chapter 12 bankruptcy is designed to allow farmers to reorganize their farm operations and keep the farm in the family and operating. […]
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Save the Date
Due to the success of the AICPA Ag Conference in Austin, Texas last May, they have decided to do another Ag Conference this year. Normally, this conference would be on an every-other year cycle, but they have elected to try having a back-to-back conference. This year, the conference will be held at the Hyatt Regency in […]
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Do Farmers Take Advantage of “Trust Fund” Loopholes
President Obama as part of his expected State of the Union address will announce various tax related measures to help the lower and middle class and close certain “trust fund” loopholes. This loophole is primarily the ability to step-up assets to fair market value at death. Current law allows a step-up in value of almost […]
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Early CRP Opt-Out Ends January 30, 2015
The USDA has announced that the deadline for CRP participants to elect out of any current CRP contracts will end January 30, 2015. Under the new Farm Bill, certain CRP participants who met certain requirements were allowed to opt-out of the CRP contract early without penalty. Here is a fact sheet on those conditions. Practices […]
