Introduction

A farmer, like other taxpayers, must keep records to prepare an accurate income tax return and determine the correct amount of tax. This chapter explains why you must keep records, what kinds of records you must keep, and how long you must keep them for federal tax purposes.

Tax records are not the only type of records you need to keep for your farming business. You should also keep records that measure your farm's financial performance. This publication only discusses tax records.

For information on financial recordkeeping, you may want to get a copy of Financial Guidelines for Agricultural Producers. You can order it from Countryside Marketing, Inc., by calling 1-630-637-0199 or you can write to:

Farm Financial Standards Council
PMB 316
1212 S. Naper Blvd., #119
Naperville, IL 60540

You can also download the publication at www.ffsc.org.

Topics

This chapter discusses:

• Why you should keep records
• What records to keep
• How long to keep records

Useful Items

You may want to see:

Publication

• 51   Circular A, Agricultural Employer's Tax Guide
• 463   Travel, Entertainment, Gift, and Car Expenses

See chapter 21 for information about getting publications.

Why Keep Records?

Everyone in business, including farmers, must keep records. Good records will help you do the following.

Monitor the progress of your farming business.   You need good records to monitor the progress of your farming business. Records can show whether your business is improving, which items are selling, or what changes you need to make. Good records can increase the likelihood of business success.

Prepare your financial statements.   You need good records to prepare accurate financial statements. These include income (profit and loss) statements and balance sheets. These statements can help you in dealing with your bank or creditors and help you to manage your farm business.

Identify source of receipts.   You will receive money or property from many sources. Your records can identify the source of your receipts. You need this information to separate farm from nonfarm receipts and taxable from nontaxable income.

Keep track of deductible expenses.   You may forget expenses when you prepare your tax return unless you record them when they occur.

Prepare your tax returns.   You need good records to prepare your tax return. For example, these records must support the income, expenses, and credits you report. Generally, these are the same records you use to monitor your farming business and prepare your financial statements.

Support items reported on tax returns.   You must keep your business records available at all times for inspection by the IRS. If the IRS examines any of your tax returns, you may be asked to explain the items reported. A complete set of records will speed up the examination.

Kinds of Records
To Keep

Except in a few cases, the law does not require any special kind of records. You can choose any recordkeeping system suited to your farming business that clearly shows, for example, your income and expenses.

You should set up your recordkeeping system using an accounting method that clearly shows your income for your tax year. See chapter 3. If you are in more than one business, you should keep a complete and separate set of records for each business. A corporation should keep minutes of board of directors' meetings.

Your recordkeeping system should include a summary of your business transactions. This summary is ordinarily made in accounting journals and ledgers. For example, they must show your gross income, as well as your deductions and credits. In addition, you must keep supporting documents. Purchases, sales, payroll, and other transactions you have in your business generate supporting documents such as invoices and receipts. These documents contain the information you need to record in your journals and ledgers.

It is important to keep these documents because they support the entries in your journals and ledgers and on your tax return. Keep them in an orderly fashion and in a safe place. For instance, organize them by year and type of income or expense.

Travel, transportation, entertainment, and gift expenses.   Special recordkeeping rules apply to these expenses. For more information, see Publication 463.

Employment taxes.   There are specific employment tax records you must keep. For a list, see Publication 51 (Circular A).

Excise taxes.   See How To Claim a Credit or Refund in chapter 18 for the specific records you must keep to verify your claim for credit or refund of excise taxes on certain fuels.

Assets.   Assets are the property, such as machinery and equipment, you own and use in your business. You must keep records to verify certain information about your business assets. You need records to figure your annual depreciation deduction and the gain or loss when you sell the assets. Your records should show all the following.

• When and how you acquired the asset.
• Purchase price.
• Cost of any improvements.
• Section 179 deduction taken.
• Deductions taken for depreciation.
• Deductions taken for casualty losses, such as losses resulting from fires or storms.
• How you used the asset.
• When and how you disposed of the asset.
• Selling price.
• Expenses of sale.

The following are examples of records that may show this information.

• Purchase and sales invoices.
• Real estate closing statements.
• Canceled checks.

Financial account statements as proof of payment.   If you do not have a canceled check, you may be able to prove payment with certain financial account statements prepared by financial institutions. These include account statements prepared for the financial institution by a third party. These account statements must be highly legible. The following table lists acceptable account statements.

Proof of payment of an amount, by itself, does not establish you are entitled to a tax deduction. You should also keep other documents, such as credit card sales slips and invoices to show that you also incurred the cost.

How Long To Keep Records

You must keep your records as long as they may be needed for the administration of any provision of the Internal Revenue Code. Generally, this means you must keep records that support an item of income or deduction on a return until the period of limitations for that return runs out.

The period of limitations is the period of time in which you can amend your return to claim a credit or refund or the IRS can assess additional tax. The following table contains the periods of limitations that apply to income tax returns. Unless otherwise stated, the years refer to the period beginning after the return was filed. Returns filed before the due date are treated as being filed on the due date.

Keep copies of your filed tax returns. They help in preparing future tax returns and making computations if you later file an amended return.

Employment taxes.   If you have employees, you must keep all employment tax records for at least 4 years after the date the tax becomes due or is paid, whichever is later.

Assets.   Keep records relating to property until the period of limitations expires for the year in which you dispose of the property in a taxable disposition. You must keep these records to figure any depreciation, amortization, or depletion deduction and to figure your basis for computing gain or loss when you sell or otherwise dispose of the property.

Generally, if you received property in a nontaxable exchange, your basis in that property is the same as the basis of the property you gave up, increased by any money you paid. You must keep the records on the old property, as well as on the new property, until the period of limitations expires for the year in which you dispose of the new property in a taxable disposition.

Records for nontax purposes.   When your records are no longer needed for tax purposes, do not discard them until you check to see if you have to keep them longer for other purposes. For example, your insurance company or creditors may require you to keep them longer than the IRS does.

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