July, 2010
-
What is My Step Up
In my last post, I gave an update on the current estate tax law and how it my apply to farmers for 2010. In that post, I referred to the term “Step Up” and I am using this post just to explain what the term Step Up or Step Down means. Up until this year, […]
-
Estate Tax Update
I am currently in a financial investment conference in Chicago for a couple of days and during one of the sessions, the current estate tax situation was discussed. There appears to be at least 6 billionaires that have died this year and under the current law, they will owe no federal estate taxes, however, in most […]
-
Don’t Miss a Marketing Opportunity
Since the June crop report came out, wheat has rallied over a $1 per bushel, corn is up about 50 cents and soybeans have rallied also. Now, it appears that the world wheat supply is looking at drought issues around the world (except for our hemisphere it seems) and this is continuing to help wheat […]
-
S Corp Versus C Corp Dividends
In my post about large tax increases coming for dividends, there were several replies on our Agweb.com blog site regarding how this affects S corporation dividends and other related issues. I thought I would use this post to give our farmers a quick update on how income is taxed for C corporations and S corporations. […]
-
Health Care Credit Limits Posted by IRS
The large health care act passed earlier this year had an up to 35% credit available to farmers who paid for health insurance for their employees. The credit is based upon the percentage amount of health insurance that a farmer pays times 35%. As long as you pay at least 50% of the premiums for […]
-
Dividend Tax Rates are About to Skyrocket
Congress back in 2001 dropped the maximum tax rate on dividends received by a taxpayer from 39.6% to 15% (plus any applicable state income taxes). But under the so-called Sunset Rule, these special low rates expire at the end of 2010. Beginning in 2011, the top rate is expected to go back to 39.6% and […]
-
Minnesota Farmers See 63% Reduction in Net Income for 2009
Of the 2,401 Minnesota farms included in the “FINBIN” survey for 2009, the median farm saw a 63% decrease in net income from $91,242 to $33,417. Each year, the Center for Farm Financial Management performs a survey of Minnesota farmers. Their response for 2009 represented about 3% of overall farms and about 10% of the […]
-
Challenges Facing CRP
With the 2008 farm act, substantial changes were made to the USDA Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). The major change was reducing the maximum enrollment acreage from about 37 million acres to 32 million acres which is about a 14% reduction in maximum acres. Also, during this period, a substantial increase in commodity prices took place […]