Tax Deduction Question

A question that many growers have asked is: Is it possible to take a tax deduction on my losses after last year's freeze damage to plants?
This is the answer that we must share:

Most generally no. The nursery, if they grow the plants from cutting or seed deduct the costs over the period these plants are being brought to "marketable size". So the nursery has gotten the tax benefit.

The freeze is treated as a casualty loss (unusual, sudden, unexpected event). Tax rules limit casualty losses to the LESSER OF, basis (costs of product) or the decrease in fair market value. Since, based on the first paragraph, the producer has zero basis (he/she has deducted all expenses) there is no casualty loss and no tax deduction for plant losses due to a freeze.

Has there been an economic loss, yes, no doubt. But there is not a tax loss we can use.

For more information contact your local Cooperative Extension Center and ask for the Commercial Horticulture Agent.

Drought Monitoring

Here is a link to the Drought Monitor website,which is a risk management
tool to convey current and predictive information about drought conditions
throughout the U.S. This link is for North Carolina. In the table, there
are a number of drought levels given for each time frame over the last year.
The numbers in the table are the percent of area in the state (shown on map)
that are experiencing that drought type. It looks like the current area in
exceptional drought (46.2%) and extreme drought (78.6%) has changed ± 5%
since last fall. Of course 100% of the state is still in severe drought
conditions: Drought Monitoring

The good news from this map is that many of the counties in Western NC have moved from Exceptional drought conditions to Extreme drought conditions, but the bad news is that the areas east of us, where our larger urban markets are located, have actually gotten dryer; moving from Extreme drought conditions to Exceptional drought conditions. The uncertainty of the weather is very real and it behooves us all to develop solid, research based, risk management strategies!

Waver: Do not open and read this website if you are prone to panic attacks!

For more information contact your local Cooperative Extension Center and ask for the Commercial Horticulture Agent.

Extension Online News

Visit Extension Online News
to view a video between Cooperative Extension Director, Dr. Jon Ort and State Climatologist, Ryan Boyles as they discuss the impact of last year's drought. Mr. Boyles also speaks on projected issues related to the drought and water availability for the summer of 2008.

From his comments I think it would be safe to say that we in the green industry need to be looking at all of the best management practices we can implement to conserve water and sell water conservation ideas to our clients along with the plants and services we provide.

For more information contact your local Cooperative Extension Center and ask for the Commercial Horticulture Agent.

Green Tips for February

The Green Tips Newsletter for February 2008 is now online at GreenTips
Please view the link to the events calendar as there are some new and exciting programs scheduled for the months ahead. As always your input is welcome.
For more information contact your local Cooperative Extension Center and ask for the Commercial Horticulture Agent.