Farm Industry Trends
-
S Corporation Tax Returns Generate A Lot of Income
The IRS on June 21, 2012 released a report regarding their review of S corporation tax returns filed during the five year period ending in 2011. During this period, the IRS audited 53,544 S corporation tax returns. This was a 54% increase over the previous five years. For each return audited, the IRS generated about […]
-
Ethanol Makers are Getting Squeezed
The Wall Street Journal issued a report today on how Midwest Ethanol makers are getting squeezed by the rapid increase in corn prices (to read the article, you may need a subscription). Production earlier in the year was running at about 950 million barrels per day. The current run rate is about 800 million barrels […]
-
Smithfield Foods to import corn from Brazil
Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork producer, said Tuesday it will import corn from Brazil. This is most likely a result of Brazil soybeans being cheaper to import by ship than to transport them by rail to the East Coast. Also, in another report, it appears the Southern Brazil crush operators may run out of […]
-
Building US Ag Exports – One BRIC at a Time
We periodically quote publication issued by the Kansas City Federal Reserve. Last month, they issued a report entitled “Building U.S. Agricultural Exports: One BRIC at a Time”. The report is only 10 pages long, but has a lot of good information. Here is a recap of what I found interesting: A chart showing the amount […]
-
IRS Required Interest Rates Drop Even Lower
Every month the IRS posts a listing of the required interest rates that parties must put into loan contracts to prevent imputing of interest. For several months, these rates have been dropping lower and lower. For the month of August, short-term notes (less than 3 years) now require an interest rate of .25%. Mid-term loans […]
-
Firms Pass Up Tax Breaks Due to Hassles and Costs
The Wall Street Journal published a front page article (you may need to be a subscriber to read the full article) today on how many small and large businesses are passing up the chance to take advantage of certain tax benefits due to the hassles and costs associated with IRS compliance. We have seen many […]
-
Senate Makes No Proposed Changes to Estate Tax in Extension Bill
Senate Democrats removed any mention of the estate tax in a Bill that is currently headed to the floor. This propsed Bill will now extend the 2001 and 2003 “Bush” tax cuts for families earning $250,000 or less. An earlier version of the Bill would have included a maximum estate tax rate of 45% while dropping the exclusion […]
-
Plan for 2012 Crop Insurance Proceeds
Based on this year’s drought, we know that this will most likely be the largest amount of crop insurance claims ever processed. With proper planning, you may be able to structure when to report these crop insurance proceeds to achieve the best tax advantage for this year. Crop insurance proceeds due to crop damage (not […]
-
Medicare Premiums Qualify Are Deductible Above the Line (in some cases)
The IRS just announced a formal change in the long-held position on the deductibility of Medicare premiums (normally withheld from Social Security Benefits). Until about 2009, the IRS position was that a self-employed taxpayer (including partners and more than 2% S corporation shareholders) could not deduct Medicare premiums above the “line” as part of the […]
-
How to Pick a Futures Broker!
In response to the bankruptcy filing of Peregrine Financial Group this week and the MF Global filing last year, these are some of red flags to watch out for in picking a broker (or continuing) to handle your futures trading and hedging: Review the financial information that is available regarding the financial health of the […]