Farm Taxes

  • Danger, Will Robinson

    For those of us old enough to remember the TV show “Lost in Space’, there was a common saying “Danger, Will Robinson”.  That show has been off the air for far longer than my oldest son (age 29), but the ACA provides some of its own “Danger”. Individuals who acquire health insurance through an ACA […]

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  • Are You 70 1/2?

    If you have retirement or IRA accounts and you are approaching age 70 1/2, you must be careful to make sure to take your required minimum distributions (RMD) and April 1 can be a key deadline.  Holders of these accounts are normally required to start taking RMDs in the year they turn 70 1/2, however, […]

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  • Expanded Cost Basis Reporting is Here! Are you Ready?

    The Surface Transportation and Veterans Health Care Improvement Act of 2015 (those two don’t really go together) added new tax laws that require executors to file cost basis information with the IRS.  This is required only when there is a taxable estate.  The rules on implementing this can be complicated, but I wanted to provide […]

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  • Iowa Governor Branstad Finally Signs Coupling Bill

    In the past, Iowa has always coupled Section 179 and other tax extender provisions with the IRS when these items are extended.  However, with the passage of the new tax laws back in December including making Section 179 permanent at the $500,000 level (indexed to inflation), Iowa Governor Branstad initially balked at the idea of […]

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  • IRS Interest Rates Finally Start to Rise

    It seems like forever that the interest that the IRS will pay or collect on tax refunds/underpayments has been stuck at 3%.  The IRS just announced today that beginning April 1, 2016, the interest rate will rise to 4% for most taxpayers.  In some case, large corporations will pay 6% on refunds and will only […]

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  • When Not To Take A Discount?

    When a farmer has a taxable estate, we usually try to obtain a discount by splitting up land ownership into “fractional” ownership.  This is usually accomplished by putting the land into some type of limited liability entity (LLE).  Most of the court cases have found that a discount of around 35% is permissible when farmland […]

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  • Two Opportunities for Farm and Estate Tax Education

    Clifton Larson Allen is pleased to offer two seminars this summer for farmers, CPAs, attorneys and anyone else who is interested in a two-day seminar on farm and estate taxation. I will be a presenter at the seminars. The first seminar will be held Thursday and Friday June 9 and 10 in Cullowhee, North Carolina at Western Carolina […]

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  • Iowa Farmers Have Until April 30 to File Iowa Tax Returns

    In the last two weeks we have posted several times on the issues facing Iowa farmers on filing their Iowa income tax returns for this year.  There has been a lot of back and forth as to whether Iowa will couple with all of the federal changes (at least for 2015). That issue is not […]

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  • Iowa DOR Digs In

    We have posted a couple of times on the Section 179 coupling issue regarding Iowa Farmers.  The Iowa Department of Revenue just issue a notice on their web-site that they will require farmers to file and pay their taxes by March 1 or face penalties and interest (there is no interest if paid by normal […]

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  • If You Don’t Pay Income Taxes, You Lose the Farm!

    Frankie Sanders is a self-employed farmer in Illinois and a “tax defier”.  As far as the IRS can tell, Mr. Sanders has never filed an income tax return or paid any taxes.  The IRS audited his income for 1991-1997 and Mr. Sanders never cooperated with the IRS.  The IRS assessed income tax using an estimate […]

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