! well as farm employees, for example,

CAUTION workers at a retail farm market. See

Pub.15 for employment tax rules for wages and noncash wages paid to these employees as they may differ from those discussed in this chapter.

Photographs of missing children. The IRS is a proud partner with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children® (NCMEC) . Pho- tographs of missing children selected by the Center may appear in this publication on pages that would otherwise be blank. You can help bring these children home by looking at the photographs and calling 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678) (24 hours a day, 7 days a week) if you recognize a child.

A farmer, like other taxpayers, must keep records to prepare an accurate income tax return and determine the correct amount of tax. This chapter explains the benefits of keeping records, what kinds of records you must keep, and how long you must keep them for federal tax purposes.

While this publication only discusses tax records, the records you keep as a farm business owner should allow you to accurately measure your farm’s financial performance, create financial statements, and help you make management decisions in addition to calculating taxable farm income.

Records that provide information beyond your tax return require additional information and effort on the part of the record keeper. To assist you in developing or improving your recordkeeping system, the Farm Financial Standards Council produces publications that provide recommendations for financial reporting and analysis. You can order these publications and download the Implementation Guide at ffsc.org . For more information, contact the Farm Financial Standards Council in the following manner.

• Email contact@ffsc.org .

• Write to: Farm Financial Standards Council P.O. Box 35 Downs, IL 61736-0035.

Topics This chapter discusses:

• Benefits of recordkeeping

• Kinds of records to keep

• How long to keep records

Useful Items You may want to see:

Publication