For sure, there’s quite a bit to be unsure about according to Farm CPA Paul Neiffer. Whether it’s tax code changes, the farm bill or biofuels policy, Neiffer says those topics alone give him a lot to stay on top of.
Neiffer will present his timely takeaways at the 2025 Top Producer Summit, Feb. 17 to 19 in Kansas City, Mo. Full agenda and registration can be found here.
Regarding the Corporate Transparency Act and the filing of Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI), Neiffer says recent action by the Supreme Court has delayed those requirements into the foreseeable future.
“Last week the Supreme Court lifted the injunction on filing Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) reports,” he says. “However, FinCEN elected to postpone any filing of BOI reports for now because there’s another pending case in the courts,”
In short, filing those reports isn’t required. But Neiffer says they are easy reports to file in that they take a few minutes, and it’s worth being on notice for if/when they are required.
Neiffer is watching some groups who may want to lobby to eliminate the estate tax, but he cautions that could cause an unintended consequence.
“Eliminating the estate tax sounds really great. However, if that happens, and we get a new progressive government at some point in time, they’re going to say, what we’re going to do instead is we’re going to have a capital gains tax at death,” Neiffer says. “Then, you’re going to have to pretend like you sold all your assets for fair market value at death, just like Canada, and I think most farmers would rather keep the current estate tax than have a capital gains tax of death.”
When it comes to the farm bill, Neiffer says there’s quite a delay for anything that could come from DC to have impact at the gate.
“Even if we pass a farm bill, most row crop farmers are not going to be any money from passing new a farm bill until October of 2027,” he says. “So already, right now, we’re two and a half years before you’re ever going to see any money from the new farm bill.”
He says that delay in on-farm impact, is likely pushing it down in the list of priorities for Congress.
“The idea of passing it now or passing it at the end of the year for most farm operations is sort of irrelevant. There’s an incentive to get it done for other priorities, but as far as for the row crop farmer out there and ARC and PLC you get no payments until October ’27. And I think that’s also gumming up the works, because Congress knows they really don’t have a deadline.”
A topic that garnered attention through the end of the year was biofuels policies and the proposed tax credits in the inflation reduction act. The Biden Administration left its suggested guidance, but the future is still unknown for its implementation.
“Right now, the guidance that we have is so nebulous,” Neiffer says. “We certainly have some Republicans that want to eliminate 45z or make major changes to it. It’d be nice if they changed it to require domestic feedstock, versus bringing it in from China or Brazil. Right now, I would say, it’s to be determined. We’re just gonna have to have a wait and see on it.”
You can listen to Paul’s most recent appearance on AgriTalk:
