Farmer View:

Important Dates to Follow for the Farmers

Farming is just like any other business. The value of good record keeping can’t be stressed enough. If you need to pay someone $200 a week to keep track of all the money being spent and how it’s being spent you won’t make a better investment the whole year, it’s better than being audited and going to the tax court. The following is a list of dates to keep track of for the year 2001:

• End of January 2001 – provide all your employees with copies of their W-2s. Deposit all the Social Security and Medicare taxes plus withheld income taxes by this day if they exceed $1000. File form 943 to report all these taxes by this date with any undeposited taxes that are less than $1000 with the exception being you deposited all the taxes already and you don’t owe anything to Uncle Sam, than you have till February 12th, 2001. Report your Federal Unemployment tax by filing form 940 or 940-EZ. If the tax owed is below $100 then you can pay it with your income tax return, anything over needs to be paid off unless you are on track with all your payments and all the tax is paid off then you have until February 12th, 2001 to file the form. Give out the annual information statement to anyone you paid over $600 for services.
  
  
• January 16th, 2001 – By paying your estimated taxes for 2000 by this date using form 1040ES, you are able to file your income tax return by April 16th, 2001. If you fail to meet the deadline for your estimated tax payment, you have until March 1st, 2001 to pay your estimated taxes and file an income tax return.
  
  
• February 12th, 2001 – Due date for Social Security and Medicare, withheld income, and Federal Unemployment taxes, only if all the payments for the year 2000 were paid on time.
  
  
• February 28th, 2001 - Send Copy A of W-2 for each employee to the Social Security Administration with a completed W-3, transmittal of wage and tax statement. File form 1099-INT for any interest over $600 that you paid during the tax year. Report any miscellaneous income, payments made over $600 to other persons for services rendered by them on form 1099-MISC. For these two forms file separate forms for each employee plus form 1096, Annual Summary and Transmittal of US Information Returns. The income reported on these forms is usually subject to a higher tax rate 31%, commonly known as backup withholding.
  
  
• March 1st, 2001 – File your income tax by this date if you owe any taxes for the year 2000. If you have paid off your estimated taxes for this year then you have until April 16th, 2001.
  
  
• April 2nd, 2001 – Due date for electronically filing forms 1099 and W-2 with the Social Security Administration.
  
  
• April 16th, 2001 – Due date for income tax return, form 1040.
  
  
• April 30th, 2001 – Deposit FUTA taxes if you owe more than $100 for the period starting on January 1st, 2001 to March 31st, 2001.
  
  
• July 31st, 2001 – Deposit FUTA taxes up to end of June 2001 if you owe more than $100 for that period.
  
  
• October 31st, 2001 – Deposit FUTA taxes up to end of September 2001 if you owe more than $100 for that period.