April, 2012
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Sometimes You Lose When You Win!
The Tax Court recently ruled in favor of a taxpayer regarding a Section 1031 exchange. In the Reesink case (TC Memo 2012-118), the Tax Court indicated that the taxpayers were entitled to nonrecognition treatment on the purchase of a house that they ultimately moved into as their personal residence. Normally, you cannot sell investment property […]
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Maximize Your Current Land Revenue!
In a meeting with one of my clients in Northern Illinois yesterday, we discussed one of their options for increasing their current land holdings without adding more land. They are in an area where farmland is costing $12,000 or more and none is available. Additionally, land rents are approaching or exceeding $400 per acre. One […]
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What is the Right Equipment Size?
I was riding on the tractor on Wednesday with Chris Barron, my fellow columnist for Top Producer magazine, and we had a good discussion about how farming is different from other “manufacturing” operations when it comes to the right equipment size. In most manufacturing operations, the weather plays no role in the production process. The […]
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The Iowa Farmland Premium
On Tuesday, I had a quick meeting at our Des Moines office. After that, I met Moe Russell at the local Village Inn for a quick cup of coffee (or in my case, a Coke since my mother bred out of me the coffee gene). Moe and I caught up with business and then had […]
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My Thoughts on Angus Cattle
On Monday, I spent most of my day in St. Joseph, Missouri and near White Cloud Kansas. I visited our St. Joseph office in the morning and I had a great time meeting the staff and partners at a new office to me. However, this visit really made me feel old since as I looked […]
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The End of Tax Season!
By my unofficial count, this is my 30th tax season. I worked for a small CPA firm in downtown Seattle during my first tax season (while attending college at the University of Washington and being newly married) and the owner giving me a set of partnership returns to work on. I was so proud of […]
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Deferred Sales Contracts
We had a reader ask the following question: “I am delivering 5000 bu of soybeans to the elevator today and will price them at today’s market. I want to receive the money in Jan. 2013 to keep this income out of 2012. do I need to have anything in the contract with CGB for IRS […]
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The Backdoor Roth IRA
With the expected increase in income tax rates next year due to the Medicare Surtax and the possible sunsetting of the Bush tax cuts, now may be a great time to set up a Roth IRA. Unlike a regular IRA, a ROTH is completely tax-free when funds are withdrawn (assuming you meet certain requirements on […]
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Elimination of Estate Tax Bill Proposed in Senate
Senator John Thune, R.-S.D. has introduced the Death Tax Repeal Permanency Act S. 2242, which would permanently abolish the federal estate tax. The Senate bill is identical to H.R. 1259 introduced by House Representative Kevin Brady, R-Texas. The tax is currently set at 35% on estates over $5 million. However, beginning January 1, 2013, the […]