 By Steve Brackenridge, Director, Ontario Federation of Agriculture
As the year comes to a close, farmers are wrapping up the last of the field work and preparing their farms for the winter. It’s also time to start focusing on getting ready for tax season. That means getting bookwork caught up, receipts and paperwork gathered and taking time to generally take stock of how the farm has performed from a business and financial standpoint over the past year. It also means getting up-to-date on any tax policy changes over the past year that may have impact on a farm business. This is particularly relevant since the start of COVID-19, as there have been many special government programs to help Canadians cope with the impacts of the pandemic over the last several years that are still applicable today and can have implications at tax time. For Ontario farmers, there is one change in particular that has come into effect over the past year that I’d like to draw attention to. Earlier this year, the federal government’s Underused Housing Tax Act became law in Canada. It charges an annual tax of 1% of the value of housing the government deems vacant or underused and is owned by those who aren’t Canadian citizens or permanent residents. There are broad exemptions for individuals, charities, governments and public corporations, but any private farm corporations, farm partnerships or trusts that own residential property will have to file a return even if they are exempt from paying the tax. The penalty for not filing is $5,000 for an individual and $10,000 for a corporation, so it pays to pay attention to this new requirement – especially since it hasn’t received a lot of attention since it became law in June. Your accountant can provide additional information, as well as support and recommendations on other tax strategies specific to your farm business. Farm vehicles or trucks also play a role at tax time. Farmers – and in fact, all business owners – who use farm or business vehicles for non-business purposes are required to keep a log that shows the number of kilometers they drive for both business and personal use. It’s an issue that can trigger a Canada Revenue Agency audit, so it’s worth keeping on top of. There are online templates for manual tracking of kilometres, but there are also smart phone apps that can do the job in real-time, including mileage trackers built into common accounting software packages like QuickBooks. It’s not just tax time that makes it important to be on top of accounting and financial record keeping for a farm business. At our recent annual meeting of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA), a speaker from MNP gave a seminar on farm financial fluency, what it is and why it plays an important role in good farm management. Chief among those was a demonstrable and measurable link between adoption of good business management practices and better farm business profitability, higher levels of confidence and a decrease in stress and anxiety. The agriculture industry has been actively shining a light on the stresses of farming and the toll they can take on the mental health of farmers, their families and their employees – and worries about finances and profitability are key contributors to that stress. More information about farmer mental health is available on Farmer Wellness Initiative website. Good financial management practices are also important when working with your lender, whether it’s for ongoing farm financing or if you’re contemplating an expansion, building a new facility or adding new equipment. Your farm’s financials are what they use to assess financial risk and your ability to borrow money, which can have an impact not only on whether they lend to you but also the interest rate you’ll have to pay. Here are seven things you can do to improve your farm financial fluency:
OFA hopes that all members can benefit from these tips and considerations when it comes to preparing for the upcoming tax filing season. As we wrap up 2022, we would like to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday, and all the best for the year ahead. For more information, contact: Tyler Brooks Director of Communications and Stakeholder Relations Ontario Federation of Agriculture 519-821-8883 ext. 218 tyler.brooks@ofa.on.ca
0 Comments
 By Ethan Wallace, Director, Ontario Federation of Agriculture
When an athlete wins a major tournament, an Olympic medal or a world championship, it’s that sweet moment of victory and triumph that makes the headlines. It’s less often that you hear about the years of hard work, sacrifice and determination that helped them reach that level of success – and even rarer to hear about times of trial and failure. As a delegate at the recent Ontario Federation of Agriculture annual meeting, I was lucky enough to have that opportunity. Jeff Adams, Canadian wheelchair racer, paralympian and world champion, was our keynote speaker and he mesmerized the audience as he shared his life story with us. Growing up on a farm, a successful treatment for an early childhood cancer caused lasting damage that eventually took his mobility when he was only nine years old. He’d always been passionate about sports and eventually found his place with wheelchair racing. In competing for Canada from 1988 to 2008, he became a three-time Paralympic Champion and six-time World Champion. After retiring from competition, he founded and sold two medical device companies before going to law school, and today, he works for a Toronto law firm, specializing in labour, employment and human rights law. He’s also been inducted into the Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame. During his presentation, Adams spoke eloquently about how easy it was to talk about being surrounded by excellence after a victory, but that it was even more important to do so on days when he didn’t win – like at the Barcelona Paralympic Games in 1992 when he had a wheel break during a championship race and ended up finishing in last place. His life experiences of resilience, perseverance and striving for excellence in sport are themes that are common to agriculture too and what we work to do every day as farmers. I farm in Huron County with my wife and three children near the town of Seaforth. We took over our family farm from my parents, who had previously taken over the farm from my grandparents. With each generation, how we farm has evolved as science and innovation help us constantly find new ways to do things better, like new practices for healthier soils and a better environment, for example. My own drive for excellence is one shared by many farmers – we want to one day turn our farms over to our children in even better shape than they were when we first started farming. As rewarding as farming is, though, it can also be tough, and it’s only been in recent years that we’ve started to talk openly about mental health challenges in the agricultural community. It can be an isolating career at times, and resilience and perseverance are what keep us going when weather damages our crops, disease affects our livestock, prices are low, or tragedies affect our farms or our lives. Sometimes, however, situations can become overwhelming, and that’s when it’s ok to ask for help. OFA has partnered with the Canadian Mental Health Association – Ontario Division this past year to develop and launch the Farmer Wellness Initiative. It includes a confidential telehealth line that makes mental wellness support available free of charge to all Ontario farmers and farm families 24 hours a day, 365 days a year in English and French, as well as up to 30 other languages. If you’re feeling anxious or overwhelmed about any issue on or off the farm, you can reach the mental health helpline for farmers at 1-866-267-6255 to speak with professional counsellors with agricultural backgrounds and training. Additional resources are available on the Farmer Wellness Initiative website. During his presentation, Adams noted that none of us get to our finish lines alone. He was fueled by the roar of cheering crowds whereas all of us have friends, families and communities that we can lean on when we need to find that extra courage. It’s important to listen for their sound of support on the days when you need to dig a little deeper, he said, but it’s equally important for all of us to make that sound of support to the people in our own lives too. Another message Adams brought to us is one I think is an important one for all of us in the farming community to remember: we need to remind ourselves of the good work that we do, that not all the moments of our lives worth remembering or celebrating need to happen in a stadium – and that the work that we do as farmers is of critical value. For more information, contact: Tyler Brooks Director of Communications and Stakeholder Relations Ontario Federation of Agriculture 519-821-8883 ext. 218 tyler.brooks@ofa.on.ca  By Jennifer Doelman, Director, Ontario Federation of Agriculture
It’s no secret that our world is facing some big challenges. Issues like climate change, environmental sustainability and food security are complex and far-reaching – and impacts are already being felt to varying degrees around the world. Farming can be a source of solutions for many of these challenges, but research and innovation are critical to helping make that happen. In Ontario, we are lucky to have some topnotch agricultural research talent at colleges, universities and other institutions. We also have terrific agricultural research infrastructure in the form of research stations for crops, livestock, fruits, vegetables and more. They are part of a long-standing commitment to agricultural research by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA), which dates to 1962 when the province created the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario (ARIO). ARIO is a provincial agency whose mandate includes providing strategic advice to Ontario’s minister of agriculture on matters related to agricultural research, working to modernize provincial agri-food research infrastructure, and promoting Ontario agri-food research and innovation. ARIO also owns 14 agri-food research properties across the province, which are managed by the University of Guelph through the Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance. ARIO is governed by the ARIO Act, which was last updated in the 1990s. Many things have changed since then, and to help both farmers and the agri-food research community respond effectively to newly emerging issues and prepare us for the challenges that lie ahead, OMAFRA has begun a process to modernize the Act. I’m a grain farmer in Eastern Ontario, and I know first-hand how important research and innovation are on our farm. It’s what gives us new products to protect our crops against pest and diseases, new practices to keep our soil healthy, and new crop varieties to help us grow more and better food. I am also a member of the ARIO board of directors, which gives me a unique understanding of how the research system works in our province. In my opinion, one of Ontario’s best kept secrets has been ARIO. It’s been there, quietly in the background for decades but something all of us, farmers and non-farmers alike, benefit from. We have a great framework in place that lets us nurture and pursue publicly funded research, but now it’s time to modernize it so we can foster the innovation and collaboration we need to help us tackle these new, big challenges. This requires long-term thinking, and we must be looking at our research and our farming landscape through a lens of generations, not years. Improving soil health, for example, is a slow, steady process that needs a commitment of decades. This means we need long-term research to help us discover and adapt new best management practices that are going to truly make a difference for our ability to farm sustainably while also ensuring we’re able to produce the food the world needs. Modernization will also let research focus on new areas where we haven’t seen a lot of investment in the past, like smart farms, robotics, automation or One Health – the approach that plant, animal and human health are interconnected. The Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) welcomes a chance to weigh in on the modernization of the ARIO Act and Ontario’s agri-food research system. Research can only truly make a difference for agriculture if outcomes are shared and adopted by farmers and others in the agri-food industry. It’s important that agri-food research meets the needs of the sector and better knowledge sharing to get research results into practice. It’s essential that ARIO enables innovative research that supports farmers and farm businesses, and that any processes to set research priorities for the agri-food sector include farm organizations and agricultural commodity groups. We believe that agri-food research is a critical tool for Ontario farmers, providing new technologies and practices that improve agricultural productivity, develop new agricultural products, and sustain Ontario’s soil, air, and water resources. Agriculture is a knowledge-based industry and research is essential to the sector’s future competitiveness by providing tools to generate improved plant and animal genetics, more efficient production systems, and safer, better quality products. I believe that we are very fortunate in Ontario to have the agri-food research system and infrastructure available to us through ARIO and by modernizing and strengthening that agency, we will have the tools few need to help us tackle the challenges of the 21st century and beyond. For more information, contact: Tyler Brooks Director of Communications and Stakeholder Relations Ontario Federation of Agriculture 519-821-8883 ext. 218 tyler.brooks@ofa.on.ca |
Archives
September 2023
Categories |
RSS Feed
