Social Security taxes are a major and growing expense of operating a farm business. Self-employed farmers and family farm workers have some flexibility in managing cash income subject to Social Security. A basic understanding of Social Security benefits as well as costs is required to make a...

Farmer productivity by age was estimated, allowing for differences because of efficiency and returns to scale. Using Census of Agriculture data, estimates vary by state, but returns to scale average 1.07. Efficiency increases average 4.5 percent every ten years of age, to the age interval 35 to...

Each state's agricultural production diversification is measured for 1984 and 1988. Very little difference existed between the type of index used or the year computed. Linear regressions of the coefficient of variation of receipts on diversification measures implies diversification among states...

Transferring farm property from the Senior to the Junior farm family generation with conventional methods such as sales and debt transfer can cause tax traps or burdens. The most serious tax traps and related problems occur when the farm business being transferred has high debt and is below...