Ag Industry Trends & Outlooks

In November 2022, Massachusetts voters approved an amendment to the Massachusetts Constitution to impose an additional 4% surtax on the portion of a taxpayer’s taxable income that exceeds $1 million. Shortly after, seven other states introduced their own legislation targeting high-income earners including Connecticut and New York. Here are the details to help your tax planning.

In 2017, the Tax Cuts and Jobs act was passed, putting a $10,000 limit on the amount of state and local tax that can be deducted on an individual's tax returns. For high income taxpayers that also pay a significant amount of property taxes, they quickly get to this $10,000 cap. For taxpayers who own pass thru entities such as partnerships and S-Corps, there is a potential way around this cap. This work around is called the Pass-Through Entity Tax.

2023 has been a challenging year for farmers, and many may see payments from their crop insurance policies or federal crop disaster payments. This Tax Talks blog reminds producers that crop insurance proceeds and crop disaster payments must be reported as income.

The recent Northeast flood events have been devastating for Farm Credit East customers and others in the affected areas, particularly those in Vermont. The IRS has released tax relief information for individuals, households and businesses. Following is federal tax relief guidance applicable to anyone located in a FEMA-declared disaster county along with state tax relief specific to those located in Vermont’s 14 hard-hit counties.