May, 2009
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In-Kind Wages Can Be Better Than Cash
One of the great options open to farmers is to pay their employees in-kind wages. In-kind wages are the payments of the crops that a farmer grows. For example, a farmer could pay their employees either cash wages of $10,000 or 1,000 bushels of soybeans worth $10,000. The reason that a farmer would want to […]
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Some Income Tax Goodies
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 delivered several tax goodies for farmers and their families. Here are some of the highlights: 1. Higher Education Credits – You can now have a maximum credit of $2,500 for higher education costs and this applies for the first four years of school instead of the old […]
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Credit Squeeze is Hitting Farmers Now
It seemed for several months that the credit squeeze was passing farmers by. However, lately I have ready several acticles about the credit squeeze hitting farms and farmers now. Frontier Bank in Colorado specialized in loaning to farmers and it went under a couple of months back. Most of these farmers using the bank were […]
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Why Strategic Plan Succeed
In my previous post, I listed six reasons why strategic plans fail. Strategic plans will succeed if they incorporate three main phases: The first phase is “intuitive thinking ” and it has more of an emotional attachment to it. This first phase answers the bigger questions such as, “Why are we in business? Who are our […]
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Why Strategic Plans Fail
I found a great article written by Ron Price, CEO of Price Associates, in AgProfessionals.com regarding why strategic plans fail. At one time, I was in a manufacturing company that periodically performed a strategic plan that had many of the problems brought out in this article. In short, there are six primary reasons why strategic […]
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Thoughts on Estate Planning for Farmers
I think over the next several months major changes will be made to the estate tax laws. Right now, each individual can have a tax-free estate of $3.5 million. Next year it is unlimited, however in 2011, it reverts back to $1.0 million. I think Congress will make changes this year to make the current […]