1. Home
2. Conferences
3. 2018 Extension Risk Management Education National Conference

Increasing the Agricultural Tax Management Capacity of Ohio Farmers and Tax Preparers

Chris Bruynis, David Marrison, and Barry Ward

Summary

Volatility continues to increase in many management areas in agriculture. During the past four years, OSU Extension has increased the number and type of tax management programs offered to assist both farmers and tax professionals in addressing the Income and Estate tax regulations risk. During the Ohio Income Tax Schools, that reaches more than 650 practitioners annually, our team has enhanced the agricultural teaching curriculum of the Land Grant University Tax Education Foundation to provide practical application and ramification of rules changes which have an impact on the agriculture sector. Evaluation data from participants at one of the nine tax practitioner income tax schools, indicated that their level of knowledge of Agricultural and Natural Resource Issues increased from 2.9 to 3.6 based on a 5 point Likert scale. Additional feedback from practitioners indicates their increased knowledge is allowing them to better assist their clientele in making strategic tax management decisions.

Income taxes have been taught by incorporating revenue and expense scenarios into tax regulation so farm owners/operator understand their tax management options. Likewise, examples of how the changes in estate tax and Ohio property tax laws effect different management decision outcome have been taught. By incorporating a tax decision outcome strategy into teaching, there are notable impacts reported by the 750 farm owners/managers that attended the twenty-eight OSU Extension Outlook Meetings and local county programs. Examples of evaluation data include: seventy percent of participants indicated they increased their understanding of the tax law updates and the implications for agriculture; ninety-eight percent of the participants reported they gained a moderate to high level of knowledge regarding the presentation on farm and estate tax laws; and program evaluation showed 100% of the attendees indicated they learned new information related to farm taxes and 100% indicated that they learned information that would help them when completing their taxes.

Details

---