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2016

Agriculture Law

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Full-Text Articles in Law

Finding A Fair Land Dispute Settlement Mechanism Between Adat Law Community Vs. Investor, Ratih Lestarini Dec 2016

Finding A Fair Land Dispute Settlement Mechanism Between Adat Law Community Vs. Investor, Ratih Lestarini

Indonesia Law Review

Land utilization for investment in local areas raises various land related problems that ends with conflicts within the community. A conflict that occurs, usually begins with the management of communal land “tanah ulayat” within the adat law community environment, and in this case, land utilization that is managed by the third party (investors). The basic problem is the difference of perception and expectations toward the company that exists in the land which is claimed by the community. Both parties have their own claim on the land based on each legal systems, in this situation adat law or local law faced …


The Unfortunate Role Of Farm Subsidies As A Stimulus For Inequality And Obesity, Neil M. Browne, Facundo Bouzat, Justin Rex, Joseph Seipel Dec 2016

The Unfortunate Role Of Farm Subsidies As A Stimulus For Inequality And Obesity, Neil M. Browne, Facundo Bouzat, Justin Rex, Joseph Seipel

Economics Faculty Publications

Governmental expenditures are directed at a particular objective, but their effects have consequences far beyond the named target of the expenditures. Specific farm subsidies, for example, encourage consumption of particular foods by reducing the costs of producing these foods. To what extent do these subsidies affect the American obesity epidemic? How do the subsidies create disparate negative effects on those in poverty? Exploring these questions stimulates us to take greater care when designing legislation to take a broader look at the stakeholders affected by any particular governmental expenditure.


Conference Report: Climate Change And Sustainable Investment In Natural Resources: From Consensus To Action, Columbia Center On Sustainable Investment, Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Sabin Center For Climate Change Law Nov 2016

Conference Report: Climate Change And Sustainable Investment In Natural Resources: From Consensus To Action, Columbia Center On Sustainable Investment, Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Sabin Center For Climate Change Law

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

The Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment has produced this conference report on CCSI’s Conference on Climate Change and Sustainable Investment in Natural Resources: From Consensus to Action. A shorter outcome document, which was disseminated at COP22, is also available. These documents summarize the discussions at the eleventh annual Columbia International Investment Conference, which took place on November 2-3, 2016, at Columbia University. The Conference offered a high-level opportunity to discuss how countries can reduce their greenhouse gas emissions in accordance with the Paris Agreement, while also advancing the Sustainable Development Goals, and in particular the important implications for the …


Submission To Opic On Revisions To Its Environmental And Social Policy Statement, Kaitlin Y. Cordes Nov 2016

Submission To Opic On Revisions To Its Environmental And Social Policy Statement, Kaitlin Y. Cordes

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

In November 2016, CCSI sent a submission to the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) regarding its draft revised Environmental and Social Policy Statement (ESPS). CCSI’s input focused on two discrete issues that CCSI has been working on: (1) contract transparency for natural resource and infrastructure projects, and (2) redress for harms in the context of project abandonment or failure. The submission urged OPIC to add into the ESPS a requirement that Applicants involved in natural resource or infrastructure projects commit to publicly disclosing any investor-state contracts related to the underlying Project. CCSI’s submission also suggested that OPIC incorporate into the …


Taking Stock: Why The Supreme Court’S Decision To Apply The Market-Value Standard In Horne Ii Further Complicates The Just Compensation Requirement, Greg Seidner Nov 2016

Taking Stock: Why The Supreme Court’S Decision To Apply The Market-Value Standard In Horne Ii Further Complicates The Just Compensation Requirement, Greg Seidner

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

The Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause does not prevent the federal (or a state) government from taking private property. It merely sets as a condition that the government pay the owner “just compensation” for the taking. Precisely what constitutes just compensation, however, is a tricky matter. One method for determining just compensation is the “market-value” method, which requires the government to pay the owner the property’s market value. But where a taking is only partial, that is, where the government takes only a portion of private property, the property that remains with the owner may see an increase or decrease in …


Revenue Reconciliation Act Of 1990, Neil E. Harl Oct 2016

Revenue Reconciliation Act Of 1990, Neil E. Harl

Neil E. Harl

The legislation imposes a 31 percent marginal tax rate above the 15 and 28 percent marginal tax rate brackets. The phase-outs of the benefits from the 15 percent rate and the personal exemption amounts (creating the so-called "bubble") are repealed. The new 31 percent rate begins at the same level of taxable income as the phase-out range of prior law.


Turn Over Of Assets To Creditors, Neil E. Harl Oct 2016

Turn Over Of Assets To Creditors, Neil E. Harl

Neil E. Harl

From 1983 to 1989, US agricultural debt dropped by about $60 billion as debts were discharged in bankruptcy, obligations were restructured with debt written off and property was deeded back to creditors. The resulting tax consequences created highly significant income tax burdens for debtors and contributed to various proposals for debtor relief from tax liability. However, except for relief from alternative minimum tax liability stemming from capital gains and a new solvent farm debtor rule for discharge of indebtedness, farm and ranch debtors were consigned to working through their debt problems within existing tax law.


Type Of Lease For An S Corporation, Neil E. Harl Oct 2016

Type Of Lease For An S Corporation, Neil E. Harl

Neil E. Harl

Since enactment of the S corporation concept in 1958, it has been important to give careful thought to the kind of lease entered into by S corporations as landowners. In the years since the major amendments to Subchapter S of the Internal Revenue Code in 1982, The type of lease has been less important for some S corporations but it is still a major checklist item for S corporation planning.


Tax-Free Incorporation, Neil E. Harl Oct 2016

Tax-Free Incorporation, Neil E. Harl

Neil E. Harl

For several years, relatively little change had been made in the rules governing the tax-free exchange of property to a corporation. The questions raised in the 1970s about how to handle basis allocation between stock and debt securities had been answered. The problems of distinguishing debt and equity securities had not been resolved but that issue seemed to be less of a burning concern with IRS than it was until the proposed regulations issued in 1980 were revoked in 1983 before becoming final.


Soil Expenditures, Neil E. Harl Oct 2016

Soil Expenditures, Neil E. Harl

Neil E. Harl

Historically, expenditures to improve the productivity of soil have been viewed as capital in nature and not deductible. Over the past four decades Congress has acted to make some expenditures deductible if specified conditions are met.


Tax Free Incorporation–Ii, Neil E. Harl Oct 2016

Tax Free Incorporation–Ii, Neil E. Harl

Neil E. Harl

In the June 8, 1990, issue of Agricultural Law Digest, we discussed a 1989 amendment specifying that, with some exceptions, for transfers after October 2, 1989, debt securities issued as part of a tax free exchange are treated as boot. Gain is recognized to the extent of boot received by the transferor.


Taxing Agricultural Program Payments, Neil E. Harl Oct 2016

Taxing Agricultural Program Payments, Neil E. Harl

Neil E. Harl

As a general rule agricultural program payments received in cash or in materials or services are includible in income. The time at which the amounts are received or made available under constructive receipt principles is ordinarily the time the payments are to be included in income. Amounts are "made available" in the year in which farm program payment requirements have been met, regardless of whether an application had been signed to receive final payment. Thus, if federal farm program payments are made available in one year with an option to accept payment in the following year, the amount made available …


Self-Cancelling Installment Notes, Neil E. Harl Oct 2016

Self-Cancelling Installment Notes, Neil E. Harl

Neil E. Harl

Until 1980, it was generally believed that an installment contract set up with remaining payments cancelled after the death of the contract seller would be treated as a transfer with a retained life estate. That was sufficient to discourage use of such a concept.


The Gross Income Test For Chapter 12 Bankruptcy Eligibility, Neil E. Harl Oct 2016

The Gross Income Test For Chapter 12 Bankruptcy Eligibility, Neil E. Harl

Neil E. Harl

Chapter 12, added to the Bankruptcy Code in 1986 may be initiated only voluntarily and is available only to a "family farmer" whose debts do not exceed $1,500,000. At least 80 percent of the debts (other than debts on the principal residence unless the debt arose out of a farming operation) must have arisen out of a farming operation owned or operated by the debtor or debtor and spouse. Moreover, an individual debtor or debtor and spouse must have earned more than 50 percent of their gross income from farming for the preceding taxable year. Closely held corporations and partnerships …


Proposed Regulations Issued For Estate "Freezes", Neil E. Harl Oct 2016

Proposed Regulations Issued For Estate "Freezes", Neil E. Harl

Neil E. Harl

The repeal of I.R.C. § 2036(c) in 1990 as part of the Revenue Reconciliation Act of 1990 was accompanied by enactment of rules shifting estate freezes away from federal estate tax and toward the federal gift tax arena. Proposed regulations have now been issued for the statute, I.R.C. § 2701-2704.


The 2002 Senate Farm Bill: The Ban On Packer Ownership Of Livestock, Roger A. Mceowen, Peter C. Carstensen, Neil E. Harl Oct 2016

The 2002 Senate Farm Bill: The Ban On Packer Ownership Of Livestock, Roger A. Mceowen, Peter C. Carstensen, Neil E. Harl

Neil E. Harl

On December 13, 2001, the United States Senate approved an amendment to the Senate Farm Bill making it unlawful for a packer to own, feed, or control livestock intended for slaughter more than fourteen days prior to slaughter. 1 The amendment includes exemptions for packing houses owned by farmer cooperatives, and packers with less than two percent of national slaughter. The amendment was approved 51-46, and became part of the Senate Farm Bill.2 In early 2002, the amendment language was clarified to prohibit arrangements that give packers ―operational, managerial, or supervisory control over the livestock, or over the farming operation …


Expense Method Depreciation, Neil E. Harl Oct 2016

Expense Method Depreciation, Neil E. Harl

Neil E. Harl

Recently published proposed regulations to the expense method depreciation rules have provided firm guidance on the position of the Department of the Treasury on several key issues involving the 1986 amendments to the expense method depreciation statute.


Eligibility For Expense Method Depreciation, Neil E. Harl Oct 2016

Eligibility For Expense Method Depreciation, Neil E. Harl

Neil E. Harl

The Revenue Reconciliation Act of 1990, Pub. L. No. 101-508, 104 Stat. 1388 (1990), has amended the eligibility requirements for expense method depreciation for property placed in service after 1990. Id., Sec. 11801. Before the amendment, expense method depreciation was limited to "Section 38 property," I.R.C. § 48(a), which was originally enacted for purposes of investment tax credit eligibility and which excluded horses from eligibility for investment tax credit and thus from expense method depreciation. I.R.C. § 48(a)(6).


Farm Leases And Passive Activity Losses, Neil E. Harl Oct 2016

Farm Leases And Passive Activity Losses, Neil E. Harl

Neil E. Harl

Enactment of the passive activity loss rules in 1986 was motivated by a desire to curb tax shelter abuses and to correct the misallocation of resources caused by tax-induced investment in agriculture and elsewhere in the economy. Thus, it is not surprising that the provisions have caused economic pain. One provision, involving the deduction of up to $25,000 for losses attributable to "rental real estate activities," has led to taxpayer confusion and uncertainty for their tax advisors.


Income In Respect Of Decedent, Neil E. Harl Oct 2016

Income In Respect Of Decedent, Neil E. Harl

Neil E. Harl

In general, property held until death receives a new income tax basis equal to fair market value at death, the value of property as of the alternate valuation date or special use value in the case of land where that election is made. This is particularly advantageous in farm estates because raised animals and grain with a zero income tax basis receive a higher basis and consequent elimination of gain and the basis of machinery and equipment and farmland often is adjusted upward at death. However, for some assets the basis adjustment rule has a negative effect as a potential …


Failure Of Grain Elevators, Neil E. Harl Oct 2016

Failure Of Grain Elevators, Neil E. Harl

Neil E. Harl

Grain elevator failures have become all too common in a number of rural communities. Whether failure is attributable to improper or unauthorized activity in futures markets, reduced levels of income from grain storage, employee defalcations or other reasons, the impact on grain depositors and on the community generally is usually decidedly adverse. Upon learning that failure has occurred or that failure is imminent, individuals affected by the failure are usually interested in knowing the probable amount and timing of any recovery.


Priority Rules: Landlord's Lien Versus Security Interests, Neil E. Harl Oct 2016

Priority Rules: Landlord's Lien Versus Security Interests, Neil E. Harl

Neil E. Harl

Over the past decade, the relative standing of liens and UCC security interests has been a matter of far greater importance than had been the case at any time since the development of the Uniform Commercial Code. Of particular concern has been the question of priority of liens versus UCC security interests when both apply to the same collateral. In addition, the standing of liens in bankruptcy has assumed a position of importance. Further, the rights of lien holders as against the purchasers of farm products have posed important issues.


Private Annuity: Useful Concept Or Troublemaker?, Neil E. Harl Oct 2016

Private Annuity: Useful Concept Or Troublemaker?, Neil E. Harl

Neil E. Harl

As an estate planning concept, the private annuity is seldom included in formal estate plans but more frequently employed by families acting without professional assistance who are seeking to assure income for so long as the parents live. The private annuity is best known for the problems inherent in its use; however, there are situations where the private annuity can be a useful part of an overall estate plan.


Forgiving Debt: Purchase Price Adjustment, Neil E. Harl Oct 2016

Forgiving Debt: Purchase Price Adjustment, Neil E. Harl

Neil E. Harl

In the last three issues, the discussion focused upon the discharge of indebtedness as a result of transfers of property to creditors, discharge of indebtedness for insolvent debtors and those in bankruptcy, and discharge of indebtedness for solvent farm debtors. Another possibility for handling discharged debt, and one that has been very important to many farm debtors in recent years, is purchase price adjustment.


Payment On Guarantees, Neil E. Harl Oct 2016

Payment On Guarantees, Neil E. Harl

Neil E. Harl

With the onset of financial and economic trauma in agriculture in the mid 1980s, the matter of loan guarantees assumed greater importance than at any time since the 1930s. In a typical situation, a parent has guaranteed a machinery or livestock loan; if the child is unable to pay as the primary obligor, the parent may be elevated to a position of primary liability. The question then becomes whether the parent as guarantor has a bad debt deduction if the parent makes good on the loan. If the parent does not pay, and instead manages to negotiate a discharge of …


Pledging Installment Obligations, Neil E. Harl Oct 2016

Pledging Installment Obligations, Neil E. Harl

Neil E. Harl

For some installment sellers, the installment obligation is viewed as an investment asset and is not pledged or assigned unless financial reverses occur. For others, an installment obligation represents economic value to be enjoyed by pledging or assigning the obligation as collateral on a loan or to secure a financial commitment otherwise. Recent legislation has imposed a far more limiting set of rules on using an installment obligation to secure a further economic advantage.


Handling Commodity Credit Corporation Loans, Neil E. Harl Oct 2016

Handling Commodity Credit Corporation Loans, Neil E. Harl

Neil E. Harl

In recent years, the relatively high rates of participation of farmers in federal farm programs have assured widespread utilization of Commodity Credit Corporation loan programs. CCC loans have, in the case of feed grains, wheat and some other commodities, involved nonrecourse loans as part of the price and income support feature of farm programs. Commodity loans from the Commodity Credit Corporation are nonrecourse loans to the extent the debtor may pay off the loan with a sufficient amount of an eligible commodity having a price support value equal to the outstanding value of the loan. If the loan plus interest …


Income Tax Rules For Farm Vehicles, Neil E. Harl Oct 2016

Income Tax Rules For Farm Vehicles, Neil E. Harl

Neil E. Harl

With enactment of the "listed property" rules in 1984, the handling of farm vehicle deductions became several notches more complex. Under those rules, automobiles and other property used as a means of transportation (under 6,000 pounds) as well as property used for entertainment, recreation and amusement and computers or peripheral equipment are subjected to additional constraints on both regular depreciation and expense method depreciation.


Paying Wages In Kind For Agricultural Labor, Neil E. Harl Oct 2016

Paying Wages In Kind For Agricultural Labor, Neil E. Harl

Neil E. Harl

Beginning in 1990, cash remuneration paid to an agricultural laborer is subject to mandatory income tax withholding. Prior to 1990, employers were not required to withhold federal income tax on wages paid to agricultural labor. However, agricultural employees could, if their employers agreed, choose voluntarily to have income tax withheld from wages. The enactment of mandatory income tax withholding plus the gradual increase in FICA tax (increasing from 7.51 percent of the first $48,000 of wages in 1989 to 7.65 percent of the first $51,300 of wages in 1990) have given added impetus to the payment of wages in kind.


Indebtedness In Excess Of Basis, Neil E. Harl Oct 2016

Indebtedness In Excess Of Basis, Neil E. Harl

Neil E. Harl

The financial trauma of the 1980s has left a legacy rarely seen in the years since the Great Depression of the 1930s — indebtedness in excess of basis on farm property. While this state may be of only modest concern so long as the property is not sold or exchanged, any event requiring a realization of the gain, poses potentially serious additional income tax liability for the taxpayer.