Farm Trends
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180 Months Means 180 Months!
The US Tax Court on Monday, October 21, 2013 released another Case that I found interesting. In Estate of Helen Trombetta vs. Commissioner, the Tax Court essentially ruled creating a grantor trust with retained interests having a term of 180 months, you better make sure you live for at least 181 months if you want to save […]
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Good News – Certain Credits Offset AMT
Part of the ongoing Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) mess over the last several years involved the allowance of certain nonrefundable individual tax credits such as the adoption credit, the child and dependent care credit, the lifetime learning credit and other similar credits to be allowed to reduce AMT. In some years it was allowed whereas in […]
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Talk Brewing of Extending the Payroll Tax Cut
The Employee FICA tax rate for 2011 and 2012 had been cut from the normal 6.2% to 4.2%. This provision was set to expire at the end of this year and then revert back to the normal rate beginning January 1, 2013. Allowing this cut to expire in 2013 seemed like a reasonable position several […]
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Don’t Forget The Small Employer Health Care Credit
We tend to talk more about the tax costs of Obama Care and forget about some of the tax savings that are available. One of those savings is for employers that cover part or all of their health insurance premium costs. This credit is allowed in full assuming less than 11 employees and average wages […]
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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 […]
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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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Goodbye Pesky Logs for Cell Phone Use!
I am sure that all of our farm readers realized that a log of all of their cell phone usage up to December 31, 2009. This log was required to deduct the cost of the cell phone service and any personal use would either not be deductible or would have been included as part of […]
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Watch For A State Capital Gains Deduction for Sale of Farm Assets
We had a reader ask the following question: “Does Iowa have a reduced capital gains tax rate on sale of farm land held for 15 years?” If certain qualifications are met such as holding the farmland or assets for at least 10 years and material participation in the farm (can not cash rent the land), Iowa […]
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My Reflections on the Midwest Crop Tour
As most everybody knows, I spent most of last week on the Midwest Crop Tour. The weather this year was much better than last year when we got rained on for one full day of the tour. I do not remember even getting one sprinkle this year. My thoughts are as follows: Last year, I […]
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Will the IRS want your Accounting Software File?!!!
In a recent Florida Federal District Court Case, the IRS was granted the right to summon the accounting software file of a small business. This case did not involve a farm, however, the IRS has gotten very aggressive in demanding the actual accounting software file, especially Quickbooks and other common software accounting programs. Before the […]