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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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You Have 15 Months to Make Portablity Election!
One of the new features of the federal estate laws passed back in December, 2010 is the concept of portability. Under the old law, if a husband passed away with an estate of $500,000 and the lifetime exclusion was $3.5 million (the 2009 rules), the $3 million excess that was not used at his death […]
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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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The $5 Billion Corn States
The USDA has reported that there were five corn states in 2011 that generated over $5 billion in corn sales: Iowa – $14.5 billion Illinois – $12.3 billion Nebraska – $9.4 billion Minnesota – $7.0 billion Indiana $5.3 billion These five states generated 63.4% of all corn sales in the US for 2011. The states […]
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Production Down, Income Up in 2011
We posted a couple weeks ago about production for almost all of the major crops in 2011 being down from 2010. Even though, production was down, income for most of these crops seems to be up in 2011 from 2010. A recap of the major crops are as follows: Corn $76.5 billion up from $64.7 […]
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MF Global Loss (If Any) Will Be Deducted in 2012
We got the following question from one of our readers: ” I made profits on commodity trades in 2011. The amount was $20,000. The 1099 from MF Global shows $20,000. However, I have received only $14,000 and probably will not get the entire $20,000. How much do I have to pay tax on?; the $14,000 that I […]
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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 […]
