AG Business Management & Taxation

Farming: Ag Business Management & Taxation

Agriculture is one of the world's most important industries. Every day, farmers and agricultural businesses accept the enormous responsibility of producing the food, fiber, and other essential products that sustain families, communities, and economies around the globe.

Yet farming today requires far more than knowing how to produce a successful crop or raise livestock. A modern agricultural operation is a business that must successfully manage people, field labor, equipment, financing, taxes, government regulations, rising costs, changing markets, technology, risk and the transition from one generation to the next.

Farming: Ag Business Management & Taxation was written for the people responsible for making those decisions.

Across America, thousands of family owned farms and corporate agricultural operations face the same fundamental challenge: How do we operate a better managed, more profitable business today while building an organization capable of surviving tomorrow?

Strong production alone is no longer enough. Farm owners and CEOs must understand financial management, leadership, cost control, taxation, business structure, strategic planning, employee management, risk management, and long-term capital needs. They must know their numbers, develop capable management teams, plan ahead, and make decisions based upon sound business principles, not simply operate by the seat of their pants.

For family farms, another challenge may be even greater: succession.

Too many successful farms reach a crossroads when the founding generation and second generation, begin to step aside. The farm may have valuable land, equipment, employees, customers, and decades of goodwill, yet no workable plan for transferring leadership to the next generation.

The riddle must be solved.

How do parents build a farm that their children genuinely aspire to lead? How can the next generation be prepared for management and ownership? How can families redesign relationships in order to make difficult business decisions? And how can a farm preserve both its economic strength and the family legacy for generations to come?

This book addresses those questions while providing practical guidance designed for the real world of agriculture. It brings together business management, leadership, financial planning, taxation issues, estate planning, asset protection and succession planning in one resource specifically focused on agricultural businesses.

Author Steven Pybrum, CPA, MBA, has spent 4 decades translating complicated financial and tax concepts into understandable, practical strategies. He is the author of three previous financial-planning books, a syndicated columnist, and a practicing tax professional in Santa Barbara, California. In farming circles, Pybrum has become known as the "King of Agricultural Taxation" for his extensive work with agricultural tax and business issues.

Farming: Ag Business Management & Taxation is more than a book about taxes. It is a guide to building a stronger agricultural business, one that is professionally managed, financially sound, prepared for change, and positioned to continue from one generation to the next.

Build the business. Protect the farm. Prepare the next generation. Preserve the legacy.