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
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- The Top 10 signs your operation is getting too darn big:
- The Top 10 things the new kid you hired does his first week on the job:
- The Top 10 issues with the 160 acres you just bought:
- The Top 10 hay harvest issues:
- The Top Ten advantages to always being behind
- The Top Ten voice mail messages for farmers:
- The Top Ten signs you’ve just bought a bad tractor:
- The Top Ten obstacles encountered on country roads:
- The Top Ten indications a farmer has anger management issues:
- The Top 10 signs your horse is smarter than you:
- More Farm Talk's Top 10 Headlines
