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IRS Releases Final Regulations on ACA Small-Business Tax Credit
The IRS released on June 20 their final regulations on the small-business tax credit for paying health insurance premiums for the business employees. This credit has been available since 2010 and was at a 35% maximum level until 2013. In 2014 and 2015 the credit increases to 50% for health insurance premium payments offered through […]
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Transition Period for LGM-Dairy to DMM is Announced by FSA
The 2014 farm bill now provides for a new Dairy Margin Management (DMM) program. Dairy farmers have been able to take advantage of Livestock Gross Margin-Dairy (LGM-Dairy) under current crop insurance provisions. However, the 2014 bill provides that a dairy farmer cannot take advantage of both programs to prevent “double-dipping”. In addition, the LGM-Dairy insurance […]
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The US has Some Awesome Scenery
Today’s post will not deal with any tax issues and other farming related items, but rather, will share a few photos I took today on our drive from Jackson Hole, Wyoming to West Yellowstone, Montana. We traveled through the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Parks and some of the best scenery in the US is […]
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Is Low Section 179 Causing Low Equipment Sales?
Most of the equipment manufacturers have released their equipment sales for the last quarter and most of them reported lower sales for the first quarter of this year versus 2013. We have seen some commentators attribute this to the current lower Section 179 tax deductions for this year and no bonus depreciation. However, when you […]
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ARC-IC versus ARC-CO
The FSA issued some regulations on the calculations of PLC and ARC late last month. This notice provides a good overview of how the FSA will determine the payment calculations under PLC and ARC. ARC is broken down into ARC at the County Level (ARC-CO) and ARC at the farm level (ARC-IC). We had provided […]
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Dairy Margin Management Options
The new farm bill brought in an additional dairy margin management program that will be effective September 1, 2014 (perhaps later if FSA is not ready). Dairy farmers currently have Livestock Gross Margin (LGM) Insurance under the crop insurance program. It would be nice if dairy farmers could take advantage of both programs, however, the […]
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When to do Individual ARC May Be Tough to Decide
I originally thought that most farmers would want to pick county ARC since it makes a payment on 85% of base acres versus picking individual farm ARC since it only makes a payment based on 65% of base acres. However, in running some scenarios through the ARC analysis, it may be tougher to choose than […]
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PLC/ARC Updates
One of the questions we are getting is “When would individual ARC make more sense than county ARC?”. As most of our readers know, ARC and PLC makes payments based upon base acres. In the case of county ARC, the payment is based upon 85% of base acres. In the case of individual farm ARC, […]
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Washington State Sales and Use Tax Exemption Update
Washington State Sales and Use Tax Exemptions Update For our Washington state readers, effective June 12, 2014, eligible farmers will no longer have to apply to the Department of Revenue and the Department of Revenue will no longer issue exemption certificates for repair parts and services for farm machinery and equipment. Instead, qualifying farmers must […]
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Corn Acres Trends
In reviewing the 2012 AG census data for corn acres, it is very interesting some of the trends that jump out at us. In 1997, the US grew corn on about 71 million acres. By 2002 the acres had dropped to 68 million acres, but beginning thereafter with ethanol, acres jumped to 86 million in […]
