American farmers awaiting decision related to IRS Tax Code

Dec 12, 2014

Section 179 expired in December 2013

By Diego Flammini, Farms.com

A Congress ruling scheduled to come down by the end of the year could have a major impact on small and medium-sized businesses across the United States and farmers are no exception.

Should Section 179 of America’s Small Business Tax Relief Act of 2014 pass, farmers would be able to expense close to $500,000 in new farm machinery and equipment.

Since its expiration in 2013, Section 179 only allows for $25,000 of purchases to be written-off.

The bill is expected to pass, but until it does for sure, farmers appear hesitant to pull the trigger on a major purchase.

"There's a lot of farmers right now that are kind of in the mix where you have a conversation, they know where they're at for the year, they've talked to their bankers, they're basically sitting," Butler Machinery Ag Director Mark Madson said. "We can give them a quote on a tractor or a combine or something and they're sitting on the sidelines waiting to make a decision."

The bill will also restore and make payments related to computer software, air conditioning and heating, and some property expenses.

Some people are worried that if the bill doesn’t pass, jobs in small towns could be jeopardized.

“In almost all small towns there are equipment dealers,” Andrew Goodman, CEO of the Iowa-Nebraska Equipment Dealers Association said. "In many cases, they are the larger employers, so their sales, the employment in those communities is dependent on the flow of agriculture and agricultural equipment."

Current data shows tractor and agricultural equipment revenue in the United States at $42 billion for 2014.

View more information about America’s Small Business Tax Relief Act of 2014.

View more data on Tractor and Ag Equipment Revenue.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.