What is the benefit having "farm" attached to your land?

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Hi folks, as some of you know, I recently bought a 13.5 acre tract of land. My question is this, I ride by many places that have named their land and attached the word "farm" to it. Are there any benefits to this? Should I also call my land something like "Dragonfly farm", and if so, how would I go about registering this or whatever is needed legally?

-- Sandie in Maine (peqbear@maine.rr.com), January 16, 2002

Answers

Could be a business name. Register the alias with your county clerk. If you aren't in business, then just name your place what you want to name it. If you register the alias though, you have sort of exclusive rights to the name...sort of. You can register it and not do business and then your neighbor theoretically cannot have the same name. If you don;t register the name and someone else does you could be sued if you try to do business with the name that someone registered after you hung your sign up.

Alot of people like to name their places. Name it what you want. If it is a farm and you want that in the name put it in. If it is a farm and you want to call it Oscar H. Will & Company fine, but you better register that namecause I might want it if I ever buy a place in maine.

Or, don't hang a sign up at all.

All the tax advantages etc. have nothing to do with what you call your place or your business if you have one.

Oscar

-- Oscar H. Will III (owill@mail.whittier.edu), January 16, 2002.


Sandie, I finally named my place, because I started selling honey and I wanted a place name to put on the labels. Also, I sell local honey and wanted to identify it as indigenous to our area. The name is not registered, and there is no legal requirement for me to do so. If I were going to incorporate, I would register the farm name so as to protect it from duplication, but I am too small an operation to bother with the added paperwork.

-- Elizabeth (ekfla@aol.com), January 16, 2002.

Oh, as far as federal tax returns go, you can have a farm and report income/losses for tax purposes without needing a name. I have two farms which I claim on my tax return- they are simply known as Farm 1 and Farm 2, the IRS could care less what they are called.

-- Elizabeth (ekfla@aol.com), January 16, 2002.

You need to contact your state's board of registration and follow the process. Hereabouts you need incorporation papers (or llc will do), brand registration papers. An attorney can handle all the necessary paperwork and obtain the sales tax forms too.

-- matt johnson (wyo_cowboy_us@yahoo.com), January 16, 2002.

Most folks just name their farm- which is often just a farmette- for sense of identy, I think. Y2K Rabbitry here. And we are registered through ARBA (american rabbit breeders association), but not through uncle sam. There was an interesting post on what everyone had named their homesteads no too long ago, it will be in archives.

-- Kevin in NC (Vantravlrs@aol.com), January 16, 2002.


If you register your farm name in your county, well in our county than you pay taxes just like a business does, so though I am doing business as Lonesome Doe, it is only through the dairy goat association and uncle sam at tax time. You should name your farm, get a checking account, mine is listed as if it were my spouse, and also order business cards and the like, this will help if you get audited, you want to be going about the business of your farm in a business like manor, not a hobby! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), January 16, 2002.

If you land is, or can be zoned agriculture, property taxes are normally way less. Tax office wouldn't care if it had a name or not, just if the activities were agricultural in nature.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), January 17, 2002.

In Alabama, we have a thing called "current use" that really reduces land that is used for framing or timber and we have it on our 13 acres. But you don't have to have a farm name to qualify for it.

We only named our "Old Field Farm" this year.

-- Suzy in Bama (slgt@yahoo.com), January 18, 2002.


We named our place just for fun. It gives us an identity that is unique. We aren't the only Stichart family around, but as far as I know, we are the only Opportunity Farm. It was also handy when we started selling at the Farmers Market.

-- Bonnie (stichart@plix.com), January 21, 2002.

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