# Taxes



## Anita Martin (Dec 26, 2007)

It's that time of year again! This is the first year I will not have received a paycheck from anything but my own self employment. I know everyone does their taxes differently, and I was going through prior years, some were done by me, some by tax experts, and they are all a bit different from year to year. One year I had a tax preparer do it and he filed profit and loss sheets for both my farm and my business. I wasn't selling soap at the time, and had just bought goats, but was doing farrier work. 

The year after that I had someone else do my taxes (she came highly recommended by a friend) and she put everything under the farm since I was using the farm as my business base, so to speak. I'm not confident she knew what she was doing

We use Turbo Tax now and that is what I used last year and it was pretty simple and I got back a lot of what I had paid out during the year with my employer. 

I want to make sure I'm filing correctly as well as get the maximum refund, or pay less, whichever is the case Do most of you file your farm and businesses separately? I've talked to so many friends locally who do everything under the farm title, but I want to make sure I do it correctly so I keep all my ducks in a somewhat straight row


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## Faye Farms (Sep 14, 2009)

Everything is under the farm for me. I have an accountant. I wouldn't even try to do it myself. But I hear you, finding a good accountant is hard. We had a spectacular one in WI. That man saved us tens of thousands, especially when we moved to KS. The year before I used somebody recommended. He was crumby. Last year I tried a different person and I'm using her again this year.


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## Kalne (Oct 25, 2007)

I do ours all under the farm. If I knew a good accountant I'd consider having it done but I don't and haven't found anyone who could really recommend one so I trudge through it. I do ours and my dd's (self-employed also). I did miss something last year and ended up getting $400 something MORE than I expected. LOL Same with dd's. It was some sort of tax credit for the self employed. I never expected the IRS to do something like that. LOL


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## buckrun (Mar 7, 2008)

> get the maximum refund


If you are self employed you will still pay tax no matter if you itemize enough deductions to get a refund. You are obligated for 'self employment' tax- ie social security. You will still pay 15.3 percent no matter how many things you can itemize. You can however affect how much of your income you do pay that percentage on as well as deduct half of what you pay in SECA taxes from your other taxes due.

http://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tool...t-Taxes/The-Self-Employment-Tax/INF12023.html


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## Kalne (Oct 25, 2007)

Yeah....that's the kicker. We normally don't owe 'income' tax because of our deductions but the farm income pays the self. emp. tax regardless.


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## Anita Martin (Dec 26, 2007)

I'd love to hire an accountant but I learned last year, with my boyfriends help, that I could do it. I've been going over prior years that other people did for me, and reading the tax instruction booklets and it's not all that difficult, plus turbo tax helped us find deductions last year that we did not know we were eligible for. I"m hoping those deductions are still available this year. However I did manage to make a mistake last year and the IRS found it. It was to my benefit. I could not believe it! 

I'm going to look up that credit for the self-employed and check out that Lee's link.

Thanks!


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## LynninTX (Oct 25, 2007)

We do them separate. We actually have 3 businesses... 

pool cleaning totally separate
farm
gift baskets we do the soap under this one... 

It makes my head spin. Dh though works for H&R Block... and one reason he still does is then we don't have to pay and our forms would cost a pretty penny to do.


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## winestonefarm (Oct 6, 2008)

tax question too: is a booth fee considered advertising?


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## buckrun (Mar 7, 2008)

We take booth fees as part of commissions and fees. 
You jury fees and rental charges for tables electrical etc would go there.


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## Caprine Beings (Sep 19, 2008)

Another question:
When your filing from checking/savings accounts...do you claim dividends/Interest accrued?
Tam


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## Anita Martin (Dec 26, 2007)

Tammy,
I saw that I could transport that information over from my checking account, which seems pretty easy. But that would mean ALL money would have to go through that account wouldn't it? I have a DBA account, but probably don't use it like I'm supposed to. I mainly just opened it so when people write out checks to my business I have somewhere to deposit them. Ha ha, if I claimed my interest, it wouldn't be very much!


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## SherrieC (Oct 26, 2007)

ok. my post isnt' here, trying again. 
on the schedule F it says do Not report sales of livestock used for Draft, breeding, dairy here instead report on form 4797? On that there's no mention of livestock just part I property held more than a year, and part II less than a year. Is that what we would use. I just don't understand the reasoning behind that. and it makes my farm income look mighty small, as some of my goats are sold for 4-h or meat, but most of them would fall under the breeding/milking


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## Caprine Beings (Sep 19, 2008)

All incoming monies are handled through the account. Even the ones from stores, which you know they have already paid retail tax. I will figure it out.


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## buckrun (Mar 7, 2008)

Your bank should send you statement of interest accrued at the end of each year.
These should go in your tax files because yes you are to pay tax on them. 
Normally your banking fees more than cancel out any interest once you get it all calculated.


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## Caprine Beings (Sep 19, 2008)

Thx.


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