Today’s Farm Bill / Section 1031 update has to do with comments made today at the Iowa Land Investment Expo by Elizabeth Williams of DTN. Her assignment, as one of the keynote speakers, was to update the attendees on the Farm Bill. I expected her to discuss subsidies, pricing issues, and so forth, hoping that she might touch on Section 1031 tax-deferred exchanges at least a little. Instead, she led off with quite a few comments about Section 1031 exchanges!
Her comments left me feeling even more unsure of the status of the like-kind definition changes contained (or not contained) in the current Farm Bill being negotiated in congress. Her first comments were that the provision seeking to reclassify subsidized land as non-like-kind to other real estate is still a part of the Senate’s version of the bill. She brought up the point that nothing is certain until the bill is signed into law by President Bush. Last, she also indicated that the administration (President Bush) supported the offensive (in my opinion) provision.
The conclusion I come to is that there is no conclusion yet. We’ll know soon, and we can cross our fingers and keep contacting our congress people in the meantime.
I hope you're not getting sick of these updates. I do them only when something happens that relates to the issue, which lately has been often.
Ken Tharp
Providing Qualified Intermediary services for Section 1031 tax deferred exchanges all over the United States. Headquartered in Iowa, our services are available in Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and all other states.
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Copyright © 2008 By Ken Tharp, All Rights Reserved. * Today’s Farm Bill / Section 1031 Update * Contact Ken Tharp for information on Section 1031 tax-deferred exchanges anywhere in the United States.
e Next Verse… Today’s Update on the Farm Bill
2008, at the Westside Community Conference Center, 3534 South 108th Street, Omaha, Nebraska, and beginning at 7:00 p.m. 
resent all day to answer your questions about Section 1031 tax-deferred exchanges and how they might be utilized in your situation. Take-home materials will be available, and there will even be a drawing at the IOWA EQUITY EXCHANGE booth at the end of the day for a $50.00 gift certificate to 
ers a little clearer conclusion. The essence of this article is that land itself may be the hottest commodity on the farm. Buyers abound, sellers are not all that common, and land prices reflect that imbalance. This article offers the opinion that it is primarily farmers who are buying farmland. That may sound obvious, but over the past few years it has been investors who have been heavy participants in farmland purchases. Today, the article points out that higher commodity prices make it possible for gross revenues from 2007 production on land might have actually paid for that land if it had been purchased in 2006; therefore, farmers themselves are more likely to be the buyers of farmland than investors.
at Farm Credit Services of America, farmland prices increased 20% or more in three of the four states covered by the organization (Iowa, South Dakota, and Wyoming) during 2007, with the fourth (Nebraska) close behind at 19.6%. Kirk Manker, chief appraiser, credits profitable commodity prices, increasing yields, relatively low interest rates, and ethanol production for the increase in Midwest farmland prices. A secondary factor cited by Mr. Manker is the decreased value of the dollar compared to other currencies, which has the effect of boosting exports of our agricultural products since they therefore are less expensive compared to previous years. The final reason given for the increase in farmland values is investors and recreational buyers purchasing land.
a chart here that shows corn pricing since the early 1970’s. This chart goes through the very early stages of 2007, and please see the comment in pink on the chart: “Bulls’ next upside price objective is $4.00,” meaning that speculators who thought that corn would continue rising in price were looking for the possibility of $4.00 per bushel in early 2007. Folks, we’ve hit $5.00 per bushel now, fully 20% more than ten or eleven months ago!