The new year is here, and we all know what that means…TAXES…the necessary evil of farm life. For me it means the hunting and gathering of every receipt that is farm related. Fuel, feed, vet, farm supplies, etc. I try to be organized and keep them in one spot in our office, but it never ceases to amaze me where I come across that rogue receipt. The center console of any one of the 3 farm trucks, the glove box of my farm car (this is a story for another time!), my wallet or the bottom of my purse. I do have a checkbook and some of the receipts find their way in there for some strange reason. My cousins think it is funny I still carry a checkbook in this day and age of swipe and pay or wave and pay. My husband has his own checkbook too and I suspect most of us involved in agriculture still carry a checkbook and pay for many Ag things with checks. I am pretty sure our local feed man doesn’t carry a card reader in his big feed truck. I do like a checkbook when I am trying to match up receipts to things I have paid for that are farm related. Some of those receipts are so worn and faded or crumpled up and you can hardly read them. I don’t want to tell on myself to the IRS, but if I can’t read the receipt, I make an educated guess and do the best I can. I suppose if I ever get audited, they can try to read that faded old receipt on that thermal paper, AFTER they dig thru the shoebox I put all of my old receipts in.
Once I gather up all that stuff, I start the process of sorting them into categories. This usually takes the least amount of time in this entire process, and I always find it interesting the things I have bought depending on the time of year it was. Once sorted, the daunting task of ‘working on taxes’ abruptly stops. My kitchen table then spends the next few weeks with all those sorted receipts scattered all over the place in hopes they don’t somehow blow off the table or get mixed around.
My husband is much more organized with his farm receipts and checkbook. He keeps his receipts in a nice, organized binder and to my knowledge doesn’t have receipts floating around in every possible place. And yes, we are that couple that has separate checking accounts. Not because we are keeping anything from each other or because we don’t share in the household bills. I just think he probably doesn’t want to know exactly how much I spend on show cattle feed. I also don’t want to know what he spends on tractor and truck repairs either.
After a few weeks of walking by the table of receipts, I finally set down and work on all the math that goes along with figuring out what we may or may not owe uncle sam. I highlight all the ‘farm’ stuff on the receipts and use a notebook to write down the amounts. I really hate doing this part and I hate adding it up even more! Not because some of the amounts are high, but because I always seem to mess up on the calculator and have to keep adding the figures over and over. I am pretty confident there is a more efficient way to doing all of this and I will probably get plenty of messages of suggestions on different programs and what not to make this easier.
Once I am finally confident in my math skills and have gotten the same total at least twice in all the categories, I am ready to turn it over to the tax lady. I do like to compare the last year and sometimes the year before on some of the amounts we end up with. Feed is always the one that shocks my husband the most, but I am not sure why because nothing on our farm looks as if it has missed a meal! I can always tell the years we have had more show calves on feed and the years we went to more shows. This year we may have a few less on feed, but I always say that and it is never true!
I don’t think a lot of people understand what farmers and ranchers go thru when it is tax time. We are a very small producer, and it is always a worry when tax time comes, do we owe, will we get a refund, do we need more deductions coming out of our ‘off the farm’ job paycheck? We are all just trying to make it to the end of next year and trying to figure out what we can spend on certain things to make our operation better. We don’t want to go in the hole on anything, but we also want to improve on what we are doing. For a lot of us, we don’t just work on our farm, we work off the farm as that provides health insurance and some other benefits we don’t get when working for ourselves. My husband and I love this life that we live, and we wish everyone could experience what we do on the farm. I just wish it didn’t come with so many receipts!
Debbie Elder is a native of Ottawa County, Okla. and lives on her farm in Webster County, Mo. To contact Debbie, call 1-866-532-1960 or by email at [email protected].
