How many here are actual backyarders vs. Farmers?

[Telamon]

Quote:
Theres a reason its called "Backyardchickens"

XD

 

[LittleLady98]

I'm a backyarder. I have neighbors within 10 yards of me. Yet none of them mind the chickens because they were raised around chickens!!!

 

[ScrappyChicken]

I suppose you could call me a backyarder, living in the country on one acre, but I prefer the term grower or homesteader. The word backyarder just doesn't do it for me, reeks too much of suburbia, hoa fees, minivans, and mowing the grass.

 

[gryeyes]

Quote:
...and the house I've bought, to where I'm moving fairly soon, has NO back yard. The entire two-thirds of an acre is in FRONT of the house, or to the sides of it. The house is within 15 feet of the back property line. So that will make me a "front yard chicken keeper.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Quote:
That's incorrect. Any income from agricultural production is reported on Schedule F. The IRS does have some rules about 2/3 income, e.g., if more than 2/3 of your income comes from farming you don't have to pay estimated taxes throughout the year, but can pay when you file your return before a certain date.

Saving $3800 on taxes due to a few dozen backyard animals does sound fishy though. You can claim a loss if you are trying to make a business out of it and expect it to be profitable. Hobby losses are not deductible. The IRS can make the determination that your activities are not a business, but rather a hobby, and if so, you'll end up paying it back.

 

[gmendoza]

Quote:
That's incorrect. Any income from agricultural production is reported on Schedule F. The IRS does have some rules about 2/3 income, e.g., if more than 2/3 of your income comes from farming you don't have to pay estimated taxes throughout the year, but can pay when you file your return before a certain date.

Saving $3800 on taxes due to a few dozen backyard animals does sound fishy though. You can claim a loss if you are trying to make a business out of it and expect it to be profitable. Hobby losses are not deductible. The IRS can make the determination that your activities are not a business, but rather a hobby, and if so, you'll end up paying it back.

Yeah, I know.maybe its fishy.I got it done by Jackson Hewwit. If I have to pay it back,so be it..Ill pay.Maybe it was my turn,maybe the cards were in my favor.Maybe it was one for the good guys.

If I have to pay it back ok,here you go, bada bing!

Maybe people are Jealous. Maybe people are mad I got away with it (for the time being).

 

[Katy]

Quote:
That's incorrect. Any income from agricultural production is reported on Schedule F. The IRS does have some rules about 2/3 income, e.g., if more than 2/3 of your income comes from farming you don't have to pay estimated taxes throughout the year, but can pay when you file your return before a certain date.

Saving $3800 on taxes due to a few dozen backyard animals does sound fishy though. You can claim a loss if you are trying to make a business out of it and expect it to be profitable. Hobby losses are not deductible. The IRS can make the determination that your activities are not a business, but rather a hobby, and if so, you'll end up paying it back.

Yeah, I know.maybe its fishy.I got it done by Jackson Hewwit. If I have to pay it back,so be it..Ill pay.Maybe it was my turn,maybe the cards were in my favor.Maybe it was one for the good guys.

If I have to pay it back ok,here you go, bada bing!

Maybe people are Jealous. Maybe people are mad I got away with it (for the time being).

Mac....no offense, but I think I'll take our CPA's advice on what is or isn't legal on reporting farm income. I emailed him and asked him since I was curious on what percentage had to be legit farm income to file a farm return. We're 100% farm income so I've never worried what the percentage needed to be.

Sorry gmendoza...not jealous in the least....I just don't like people who knowingly cheat, whether it's the government they're cheating or another person....and then brag about it. Personally I'd be going and filing an amended return rather than waiting for the IRS's knock on the door.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Quote:
There's no place to properly report that farm income otherwise. We had around $50k in taxable pensions last year and sold $99k in eggs (just ever so slightly less than 2/3 of our total income was from the farm). Do you really think that $99k in eggs isn't farm income just because we had income from elsewhere? The only thing that was affected was whether or not I had to pay estimated taxes the following year vs paying it all at the end of the year.

Not to put down CPAs in general (or even Jackson-Hewitt), but I have had really bad luck with the CPAs that we have hired. I have generally done my tax returns myself since I was 18, but there were times when I was deployed overseas that I had my wife take them to a CPA. Two out of the four times that I hired them out, the returns were so screwed up that I completely rewrote them and told them to refile it for me. One of the worst was when my wife and I were residents of two different states (not uncommon with military couples). The CPA attributed all of her income to my state, and vice versa. I noticed this when I sat down to prepare the following year's taxes myself. The error resulted in us overpaying by $2500, which I recouped when I had the CPA redo his work and refile. All he could do was shrug his shoulders and say "Oops, we sure messed that up...".

 

[Mac in Wisco]

I did meet with a local CPA who specializes in farm returns last year. He was offering a free consult. I didn't want him to do my returns, but I did want him to help me go over my Quickbooks accounts to see if there was anything I may have overlooked. He was impressed by my bookkeeping and then started giving me "tips" about reducing my tax liability. Some of the things he mentioned weren't even legal and I quoted the IRS regulations. He just shrugged and smugly said "Well, after 25 plus years of accounting I have learned what you can get away with".

I only wanted advice on how to do things correctly (and legally), after hearing some of his advice I politely excused myself and left.

 

[Katy]

Quote:
There's no place to properly report that farm income otherwise. We had around $50k in taxable pensions last year and sold $99k in eggs (just ever so slightly less than 2/3 of our total income was from the farm). Do you really think that $99k in eggs isn't farm income just because we had income from elsewhere? The only thing that was affected was whether or not I had to pay estimated taxes the following year vs paying it all at the end of the year.

Not to put down CPAs in general (or even Jackson-Hewitt), but I have had really bad luck with the CPAs that we have hired. I have generally done my tax returns myself since I was 18, but there were times when I was deployed overseas that I had my wife take them to a CPA. Two out of the four times that I hired them out, the returns were so screwed up that I completely rewrote them and told them to refile it for me. One of the worst was when my wife and I were residents of two different states (not uncommon with military couples). The CPA attributed all of her income to my state, and vice versa. I noticed this when I sat down to prepare the following year's taxes myself. The error resulted in us overpaying by $2500, which I recouped when I had the CPA redo his work and refile. All he could do was shrug his shoulders and say "Oops, we sure messed that up...".

No, I don't think that 99k egg money isn't farm income......never said it wasn't. Just that the OP seems to have slipped one by the system, at least for the time being, in order to get a refund that they only could obtain by falsely filing as a farm return.


Our CPA is a straight arrow guy and does many much larger farm returns than ours every year, not to mention other business returns. Sorry you've not had good experiances with the CPAs you've dealt with.