10. Claim the border collie as a full-time employee, with deductions for housing, meals and entertainment (which means you can deduct dead chickens twice).
9. Get creative depreciating those cows—one bad quarter, 25 percent depreciation; a bad eye, 50 percent.
8. Make sure Junior always has a hay bale in the back of his pickup while dragging Main so the gas is deductible.
7. With testimony from the banker, it ought to be a cinch to qualify the whole darn farm as a non-profit organization.
6. A Vegas trip should absolutely be considered a deductible warm-up for spring planting.
5. Check the cattle in the north pasture by taking the scenic route—right past a Canadian fishing lake.
4. Figure out the portion of your taxes that went to Wall Street bankers and write it off as an under-duress charitable contribution.
3. A new dishwasher can be considered a business expense if your wife refuses to help sort cattle until she gets one.
2. An evening at the local tavern counts as deductible "continuing education" if you discussed the weather or the markets.
1. List your feed dealer, seed dealer, implement dealer, farm store owner and farm newspaper editor as dependents.
Farm Talk's Top 10
January 12, 2010
The Top 10 farmer tax deductions:
- Farm Talk's Top 10
-
- The Top 10 signs a farmer is weather-obsessed:
- The Top 10 sources of laundry stains farmwives deal with:
- The Top Ten indications you have a lousy neighbor:
- The Top 10 indications you may need a new barn:
- The Top Ten excuses for chores left undone:
- The Top 10 easiest predictions for 2012:
- The Top 10 reindeer management issues at the North Pole:
- The Top 10 reasons they won’t hire a crusty old rancher for shopping mall Santa gigs:
- The Top Ten signs it’s deer season in these parts:
- The Top Ten reasons a county agent retires:
- More Farm Talk's Top 10 Headlines
