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$2 Cotton Can Lead to Bankrupt Farmers!
Now that cotton is rapidly approaching $2 a pound or corn is over $7 a bushel, many people feel that farmers now have it made and the good times will always be here. What I have seen in my career is that almost the exact opposite may happen. Many farmers (or other business people) get […]
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Exchange of Bare Land Allows For Depreciaiton on New Property
We got the following question from a reader: “If I 1031 a bare land parcel for a parcel with improvements can I depreciate the improvements?” Before, I answer the question, lets review what “1031” means. 1031 refers to the section of the Internal Revenue Code dealing with tax-deferred exchanges. Under a 1031, a farmer can […]
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Bred Replacement Heifers Qualify for Bonus Depreciation
We had a reader ask the following question: “I am new to cattle farming and purchased bred replacement heifers in 2010, can I take the 100% bonus depreciation on them?, as they are “New” (never calved before)? Alternatively, what would be the best type of depreciation method to apply to heifers to maximize my depreciation […]
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Capital Gains Tax Rates for 2011
We had a reader ask the following question: “What will be the cap gain tax rates for the year we are now in 2011 specifically by income tax bracket?” For 2011 and 2012, long-term capital gains (assets held for more than one year) are taxed at a maximum tax rate of 15% (unless you are […]
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Are You Ready for the Super Bowl of Farming?
After watching the Super Bowl last night (and I must admit I was rooting for the Packers), I reflected on how our farmers may want to check their operations and management to see if they would be ready to play in the Super Bowl of Farming. As a manager of your farm operation are you: […]
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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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Remember – Section 179 is an Election!
We had a reader ask the following question: “Is there an order in which I have to take depreciation? One of your explanations indicated taking section 179 first then bonus depreciation and then regular depreciation. I am wanting to take the 100% bonus depreciation on all new items and not section 179 due to the […]
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Remember That Returns Revert Back to the Mean
The first presentation at the Top Producer seminar today was done by Sterling Liddel, a vice president of economics at Rabo AgriFinance. The slide that stood out to me the most was the long-term mean price for corn over the last 80 or so years. For about the 40 years before the Russia price shocks […]
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Tomorrow’s Top Producer
I am in Chicago this week attending both the Top Producer conference and yesterday I attended the Tomorrow’s Top Producer and also gave a brief talk on income tax changes for 2011. There appears to be about 100 of tomorrow’s best farmers attending the conference and at lunch time, my wife and I were talking […]
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Those Pesky Form 1099s
We had a reader send in the following question: “I really got my-self confused by reading to much. I need some clarification on the new upcoming requirement on filing 1099’s. I know that it goes into effect for tax years after 12-31-2011. Where I am confused is CCH say it is for amounts paid after […]
