Land
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Women Own 47% of Iowa Farmland
I noticed a post on the Iowa Farm Union that indicated 47% of the farm land in Iowa is owned by women. I think this trend will continue and there may be a good chance that this percentage may be in excess of 50% at some point in the near future. Women appear to express a […]
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Golf Course Falls Victim to High Grain Prices
The new owner of the Whittemore Golf Course in Algona, Iowa has plowed it under to put in a corn crop for this year. This nine hole course was originally built in 1969. The new buyer decided that it would make more money as a farm than as a golf course. This has caused some rift […]
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Get Cash in 2011, Pay Tax in 2013
With the rapid increase in farm land prices over the last year or so, many farmers are now considering selling some farm land to lock in these high prices. The Tax Code allows a farmer to reinvest the proceeds from this sale into other real estate using a tax-deferred exchange under Section 1031 (commonly known […]
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2011 Capital Gains Tax Rates
We seem to be getting a lot of requests or searches on what the capital gains tax rate is for 2011. In summary, capital gains and qualified dividend tax rates are as follows: Short-term (assets held less than a year) are treated as ordinary income. This means that the maximum tax rate will be the […]
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If the Bubble Busts, How Long to Recover
There has been a lot of talk lately in the press about whether farm land prices are entering a bubble phase similar to farm land in the early 1980’s or tech stocks in the late 1990’s. I decided to take a look at farm land prices for good Iowa farmland from 1950 to 2010 and […]
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Deduct Your Tiling This Year
We got the following question from one of our readers: “IF A TENANT TILES OUT LEASED FARMLAND CAN THE TENANT DEDUCT THE COST OF THE DRAINAGE TILE AND LABOR DURING THAT TAX YEAR ON SCHEDULE F?” 2011 provides a great opportunity for either an operating farmer or landlord to put in new tile and deduct […]
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It is Sales Price – Not Cash on 1031 Exchange
We got a follow up question from our reader last week regarding Section 1031 tax-deferred exchanges: “This is a follow up question to your answer about “Defer Gains” on March 16th Who normally is an “accommodator” and can that monies held by the accommodator be rolled to pay off our existing mortgage on our home. […]
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Defer Your Gain
We had a reader ask us the following question: “When we sell our farm (that is currently cash rented out) is there any capital gains break if that “gain” is invested with a certain certain period of time.” When the real estate market was hot several years ago, many real estate investors took advantage of […]
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Federal Reserve Reports Rapid Rise in Land Values and Farm Income!
The Federal Reserve of Kansas City on Tuesday reported that farm land values in their district had risen substantially from the previous year. The year-over-year rise for non-irrigated land were as follows: Kansas 19.5% Missouri 6.6% Nebraska 17.6% Oklahoma 5.0% The overall value for their district was a 14.8 percent rise for non-irrigated crop land and 12.9 […]
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Exchange of Bare Land Allows For Depreciaiton on New Property
We got the following question from a reader: “If I 1031 a bare land parcel for a parcel with improvements can I depreciate the improvements?” Before, I answer the question, lets review what “1031” means. 1031 refers to the section of the Internal Revenue Code dealing with tax-deferred exchanges. Under a 1031, a farmer can […]