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  • From: Lynn Byczynski <growing4market AT earthlink.net>
  • To: market farming <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Making a living
  • Date: Tue, 09 Jan 2001 11:09:20 -0600


OOPS! That second book title is "Taxes for Dummies" What a slip!
--
Lynn Byczynski
Growing for Market
news and ideas for market farmers
PO Box 3747, Lawrence, KS 66046
800-307-8949
http://www.growingformarket.com

> From: Lynn Byczynski <growing4market AT earthlink.net>
> Reply-To: "market farming" <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
> Date: Tue, 09 Jan 2001 10:57:02 -0600
> To: "market farming" <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
> Subject: Re: Making a living
>
> Crystal,
> Regarding farm taxes: You can write off all farm-related expenses and you
> can take a loss on the farm three years out of five and deduct that loss
> from your husband's income. If the loss exceeds his income (say you buy a
> lot of equipment) you can spread the loss back over five years, and get a
> refund on taxes already paid. The tax laws are really pretty kind to us poor
> farmers. I recommend the book Small Time Operator, by Bernard Kamoroff,
> written for any self-employed person but pretty much applicable to farming.
> Also, Farming for Dummies (How I hate that title!) has a chapter on farm tax
> law. If you're going to be filing a schedule F, I think it makes sense to
> take it to a tax preparer - one who does lots of farmers - at least one year
> to see all the things that you can do.
> --
> Lynn Byczynski
> Growing for Market
> news and ideas for market farmers
> PO Box 3747, Lawrence, KS 66046
> 800-307-8949
> http://www.growingformarket.com
>
>> From: "David & Crystal" <consalvi AT midmaine.com>
>> Reply-To: "market farming" <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
>> Date: Tue, 9 Jan 2001 08:40:42 -0500
>> To: "market farming" <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
>> Subject: Re: Making a living
>>
>> Thank you for your responses to my question about how many are making a
>> living by farming. Not to offend anyone, but it seems like most of you are
>> not making a living through farming, but by being food processors, bakers,
>> etc... which maybe what is necessary, but I find it depressing. Don't get
>> me
>> wrong, I'm very glad for those of you who have found a way to making money
>> and keep farming.
>>
>> Maybe I'm short-sighted in my thinking, but I do not want to cook and
>> process food, I have more than enough of it to store food and cook food for
>> my own family, if I did, I could open a restaurant or something. And I
>> don't
>> want to be an employer. Maybe my list of "I don't wannas" is too long, but
>> we didn't move out here to have to deal with government hassle and people
>> around the farm all the time. Even if I wanted to, my house would not pass
>> Maine's inspection, we live very simply, no hot water, very limited
>> electricity, and a very small 600 sq ft house with 2 young children so that
>> my kitchen could not be partitioned off. Not too mention that we do not
>> have
>> the money to upgrade or afford the liability insurance -- my dh's off-farm
>> job makes $8.00/hr. It's one of those catch-22s, since dh works off the
>> farm
>> fulltime year round, it limits the amount we can grow. If he could quit, we
>> could grow a lot more and probably make a good living, but how to pay the
>> bills in the meantime?
>>
>> Also, we live very very far away from an upscale suburban/urban area
>> (minimum of 4 hours drive). And there are very few people around that do
>> any
>> type of farming so that it would be pretty impractical and expensive to set
>> up a community kitchen. I've considered approaching the blueberry growers
>> who have a coop kitchen, but it's 1 1/2 hours away. I've also considered
>> talking to the local technical college to use their kitchen when they are
>> not using it. Maybe that's an idea for anyone out there that wants to
>> process food.
>>
>> We do a CSA which we charge $190 per share for approx. 2 1/2 gallons of
>> food
>> from around mid-June to our first hard frost, usually somewhere in
>> mid-Sept.
>> We will be setting up a greenhouse and will try to grow food almost year
>> round (ala Eliot Coleman style) and build a root cellar. We could triple
>> our
>> income just by offering year round shares since our summer growing season
>> is
>> so short. We would have a lot of shareholdres for a winter share since we
>> cannot get good veggies during the winter from the regular food store and
>> the "health food store" does not sell veggies.
>>
>> I think, like someone else on this list mentioned, I'm just burned out on
>> all the work involved for so little money. I am interested in if anyone
>> knows of any good info on doing taxes for a farm. We have always done our
>> own and a friend had mentioned that if you farm, almost everything can be
>> written off. Anyone have any good sites or books about it?
>>
>> I hope I haven't sounded too negative.
>>
>> ~Crystal
>> Crystal Dawn Farm
>> Perry, ME
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
> ---
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