agriplan

[linda/IL]

Does anyone use AgriPlan?  Our accountant pushed, well kinda pushed, us into it several years ago.  You pay a fee & list your medical ins. premiums, medications & all the other medical expenses.  The fee is out of sight for next year so we're going to try another company.

I've been driving myself nuts doing this today as we did have a lot expenses.  It's such a job when you don't keep up with it.  Then when I went to fax it my fax wouldn't work right.  Went to the library to fax from there & had trouble with it there also.  Finally got the deed done but I don't think the results will be back before our appointment.

It seems a lot of farmers don't even use this.  We don't have a HSA account so maybe that's the difference.

Any feedback on this type of program?  It's supposed to save us money in the long run but what a job.

[turkey feather]

We were on AgiPlan for many years and a couple of years ago our accountant had us switch to another cheaper plan that takes less paper work too. I have always thought it was worth the cost and saved enough taxes to cover the cost.  But I do believe the tax laws have changed since we first went with the plan.  If new companies are bringing out the same plan, it must still be okay. As the saying goes, you have to spend money to save money? For an audit, I expect our accountant to stand by our returns and be there with us.

[chick06]

Sorry, I have never heard of this. I keep all my own records on Quicken. I have one for the poultry farm, one for the grain farm, and one for personal. I enter everything once a month, and at the end of the year I print and take to our accountant. I pay him a pretty penny but he will go with me if need be and he specializes in farms. The firm has been doing our taxes for 36 years now, same people, so I hope they know what they are doing.

[Jim Meade / Iowa City]

My CPA has me on 105 Concepts which costs $175/yr.  I hear AgriPlan costs $425/yr.  My CPA says the plan saves self employment tax (about 15%), saves income tax at whatever rate you pay (say, 15% or 30%) and I forget what else at 6%.  So, my plan breaks even if my expenses are around $345 if I'm in the 30% bracket and around $490 if I'm in the 15% bracket.  Agriplan would have to have expenses of 1180 or $833 to break even.  This is my first year with it so I'm still learning about the bookwork.

[linda/IL]

We're now on Base which is about the same as Agriplan but much cheaper at $194, I believe.  I got the info today but haven't had time to look at it.  It seems it's much more user friendly & supportive than Agriplan was.  There was no way I was paying over $400.  We used it last yr. but cheaper & we really did get our money's worth out of it.