Here is my LinkedIn profile.
And my professional bio:
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Poppy Davis is a business and policy adviser to agricultural and food and beverage enterprises, and to nonprofits and local governments. She training and technical assistance on issues such as business formation, land tenure, credit, taxation, liability, regulatory compliance, and value-added inventory. She works directly with nonprofits, associations, and local governments to help them develop financial and managerial capacity and programs to improve the environment for farming, ranching and healthy food access. Poppy teaches a class in agricultural tax law at the University of Arkansas School of Law and has ongoing affiliations with various beginning farmer and rancher training programs around the country.
Poppy began her career as a California Certified Public Accountant working in small accounting firms with an emphasis on family-scale farms and ranches and related estates, business, and not-for-profits. She translated her intimate knowledge of agricultural issues and farm-family decision-making to the policy arena, working for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), first for the crop insurance program in the Western Region and most recently as the National Program Leader for Small Farms and Beginning Farmers and Ranchers in Washington, D.C.. While at the USDA she served as a member of the management team for Secretary Vilsack’s “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food” initiative, and co-founded the USDA 4 Veterans, Reservists & Military Families, and Women and Working Lands workgroups.
She holds a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Economics from the University of California at Davis, a Masters in Journalism from Georgetown University, and a Juris Doctor with a certificate in Agricultural Law from Drake University Law School. Poppy is also a past fellow of the California Agricultural Leadership Program (Class 35).
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and this is more how I am in real life…
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Hi Poppy,
I attended one of your classes at the Eco-Farm confrence back in January. I have since-started a 30+ member CSA and work with several restaurants. I lease the land I am on and am now trying to relocate my business out of CA and to NV and buy a farm property there. Thisis my first year making a substantial income farming, and as I specialize on the labor end of the business I am really trying to learn all the correct business moves/decisions to make, what do I need to know about filing quarterly taxes? As a farmer, does this apply to me? I am concerned that if I do not address this now, it may cause a bump in the road as far as getting the financing I need to buy my property.
Hi Elizabeth,
Congratulations on your new venture! You have a great question. One of the reasons that farm taxation is complicated is that there are special rules for what qualifies as farm or non-farm income, and this is because there are tax benefits for people who have at least two thirds of their income from farming. The benefit is that you do not have to file and pay quarterly taxes. Instead, you can EITHER pay 100% of your estimated taxes on January 15th and file your tax return by April 15th or the extended due date OR file your taxes on MARCH 1st, and pay all of the taxes due at that time.
The one thing that you should think about is that just because you don’t have to pay in quarterly doesn’t mean that you don’t have to save money! The benefit was designed to help farmers who only have revenue once a year. If you receive your revenue all during the year you
need to be good about saving your money all year.
Good luck to you and please stay in touch.
Poppy
Hi Poppy Davis,
I produce a Podcast series for the web site http://www.FarmOn.com and if you’d be interested I’d like to do a short interview with you about helping young farmers and new farmers with getting started on the farm and the resources they are currently lacking. Please let me know by email (bencwilson@farmon.com) or twitter (@bencwilson) if you’re interested. You can check out our other podcasts at http://www.farmon.com/discover
Thanks,
Ben
Are you still in operation? The last entry I see is 9/09. If you can, please email me with information on how to get started becoming a farm in the eyes of the government. I have been farming and keeping animals since the 70s on my land in
Vermont.
I would like to know what specific paperwork and with whom to file in VT.
Thank you.
Georgia Ruocco
Hi Georgia, As you can tell I am NOT in operation! I just go here when I need to find old handouts. Sorry for the long long delay in response. With respect to Federal income taxes all you have to do to be a farm is file a Federal Schedule F with your tax returns. Local and State governments administer most regulations with respect to land use, food safety and land and property taxes. Once you are big enough to sell into the wholesale market and or sell across state lines there are more food safety and regulatory considerations. Some local resources for you are: your local Extension Agent ( http://www.uvm.edu/extension/agriculture/ ) the Vermont Department of Agriculture, and the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont.