Search Our Online Library
Discover, read, and monitor a wealth of information on your topic from several different sources.
The Tax Court recently found that a petitioner had not made a taxable gift in 1972 when he transferred stock to his children to settle a family lawsuit.
The Iowa Court of Appeals issued another boundary by acquiescence case today, affirming a district court order establishing such a boundary between two residential properties.
The case originated under the oft-applied Iowa law, Iowa Code § 650.14:
We have been keeping you up to date on the status of Dakota Access, LLC's petition to obtain a permit from the Iowa Utilities Board (IUB) to construct a crude oil pipeline across Iowa. Dakota Access, a private Texas company, filed its permit application on January 20, 2015. Since that time, the company’s land agents have negotiated voluntary easement agreements with owners of approximately two-thirds of the tracts along the route of the proposed pipeline.
The deadline for dairy producers to enroll in the Margin Protection Program for Dairy for 2016 coverage has been extended through November 20, 2015. The 2014 Farm Bill established the Margin Protection Program for Dairy, a voluntary risk management program for dairy producers. The program, authorized through December 31, 2018, offers financial assistance to participating dairy farmers when the margin falls below the coverage level chosen by the producer.
We regularly receive questions about Iowa’s anti-corporate farming laws. What are they? Whom do they affect? What are the penalties for violation? This month, we’ll provide a general overview of Iowa’s corporate farming restrictions, attempting to address these and other basic issues.
Another development arose this week in the Des Moines Water Works lawsuit. The Board of Water Works Trustees (DMWW) filed its (very long) resistance to the drainage districts’ motion for partial summary judgment, which the districts had filed on September 24.
The U.S. Secretary of Transportation held a press conference today announcing that a new registration system for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) (including hobby aircraft) should be in place by mid-December.
The plaintiff was a trucker who entered into an oral agreement in 2001 with a milk cooperative. The trucker agreed to pick up milk from dairy farms and deliver it to the cooperative’s plant. Under the oral agreement, the cooperative was to pay the trucker a certain amount per gallon of milk delivered, plus $100 for each delivery trip.
While the Social Security Act sets forth an automatic increase in Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits when the Consumer Price Index (CPI) warrants, the Social Security Administration (SSA) has announced that the Social Security wage base will stay at $118,500 for 2016. That means that the tax will be 6.2% on the first $118,500 of wages, thereby capping the tax at $7,347.00. That's in addition to the 1.45% Medicare tax on the first $200,000 of wages (MFJ) and the 2.35% Medicare tax (the normal 1.45% Medicare tax plus the additional 0.9% Obamacare tax) on all w
The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has now stayed the Clean Water Rule nationwide. This temporary ruling brings uniformity to the patchwork of enforcement that has existed since the Rule’s August 28 effective date.
A federal judge from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia recently granted summary judgment to the EPA in a lawsuit challenging the agency’s decision to withdraw a proposed rule impacting confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs).
The drainage districts being sued by the Board of Water Works Trustees (DMWW) have filed their first dispositive motion. On September 24, the districts filed a motion asking the court to enter summary judgment in favor of the drainage districts on the common law claims alleged by DMWW.
We last updated you on the status of the Syngenta litigation in April. This month we’ll update you on several key developments that have occurred since April, primarily this month’s ruling on Syngenta’s motion to dismiss. We’ll also provide a brief roadmap as to possible next steps in this complex legal battle.
Iowa tax law provides for a 100 percent deduction for qualifying capital gains. The most basic of the qualifying elements for the deduction requires the ability to count to 10 – or five, once retirement occurs. However, counting to 10 (or five) apparently is not easy for some taxpayers (and their legal counsel).
Yesterday, a federal judge for the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas vacated the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (FWS) final rule[i] in which the agency listed the lesser prairie-chicken as a "threatened" species.
On the eve of the official effective date of the new Clean Water Rule (Fed. Reg. 37,054-127,), a North Dakota federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction to stop the EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from enforcing it. The court stated:
As we’ve discussed in prior articles, the Clean Water Rule defines “waters of the United States” or those waters subject to the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act. For land subject to CWA jurisdiction, section 402 authorizes the EPA to issue permits for storm water runoff, and section 404 authorizes the Corps to issue permits for the discharge of fill material. This definition includes a number of exclusions.
Six months ago we explained the new rules the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had just proposed for integrating small commercial unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or “drones” into U.S. airspace. These rules, if finalized, will allow businesses—including farms—to use UAVs in their commercial operations, subject to certain safety requirements.
It’s a rather small detail, but those small details often make all the difference when it comes to litigation. And that’s what happened in a recent case from the Iowa Court of Appeals.
The Iowa Court of Appeals recently issued an opinion demonstrating a sometimes misunderstood feature of an occurrence-based liability policy: Insurance coverage ends when the policy lapses. In other words, if a business owner is covered by a liability policy when it performs faulty work, it may not be covered for damage stemming from that work if the damage occurs after the policy expires.
“My handshake is my word” is an admirable philosophy. We should all hope to deal with people true to their word. Even when uttered with the greatest sincerity, however, “my handshake is my word” is not an admirable approach to business. Unfortunately, it’s not always clear what “my word” is, even when two honest parties are involved.
Perhaps the most misunderstood portion of Iowa farm lease law is that governing the proper termination of a lease. Iowa law is unique in that under Iowa Code §562.6, a farm lease renews automatically—under the same terms and conditions as the original lease—absent specific action by one or both parties to the lease. The automatic renewal provision applies to both oral and written leases.
You've probably heard that Congress passed a short-term bill to keep the nation’s highway trust fund on life support through October of this year. The House passed H.R. 3236 by a vote of 385-34 on Wednesday and the Senate passed the bill by a vote of 91-4 yesterday. The Surface Transportation and Veterans Health Care Choice Improvement Act of 2015 became law when President Obama signed it on July 31, 2015.
We’ve been keeping you informed about a Texas company’s proposal to build a crude oil pipeline across Iowa to transport oil from North Dakota to Illinois.
Of importance to tax practitioners is what the Congress might do with the tax provisions that expired at the end of 2014 that need legislation to extend them through 2015 or beyond. Of these expired provisions are expense method depreciation and bonus depreciation.
Agricultural law is often “law by the exception.” For a variety of reasons, the law views many aspects of agricultural production as significantly different from other industrial enterprises. As a consequence, in such situations general legal rules have been deemed inappropriate as applied to agriculture.
It’s been a wet summer in many places around the country. But much of the attention on water has not stemmed from the heavy rains. Rather, the focus this summer continues to be on water quality.
The Iowa Court of Appeals recently decided two breach of contract cases, each of which provides a useful review of key provisions of Iowa contract law.
The Iowa Court of Appeals recently affirmed that negligence must be proved and that merely showing that an accident occurred is not evidence.
I’ve had many inquiries over the past months from farmers, agribusinesses and their attorneys about lawsuits against Syngenta. The inquiries usually contain a sense of intrigue and curiosity, combined with skepticism—sort of, “Is this for real?” Here are the results of my investigation thus far.
The question is a common one. It usually sounds something like this: "My neighbor has a large number of trees on his side of our common fence line. The trees are large and drop dead limbs on my property. Even more troubling, the overhang from the trees prevents production from about five rows of my crops. Can I require my neighbors to trim those trees? What are my rights and obligations?"
The answer, as usual, is, “It depends.”
The U.S. courts, over a long period of time have established the following four different approaches to deal with this type of situation.
The Kansas Supreme Court recently disbarred a lawyer. It wasn’t the first disbarment of the year, and it likely won’t be the last.[i] The case of In re Rankin, however, may be the most head shaking. It’s a case study of a lawyer who apparently did not believe that the rules applied to him.
They wasted no time. The day the new Clean Water Rule was officially published, June 29, 2015, the lawsuits began. As of today, 27 states have joined lawsuits challenging the validity of the new Rule unveiled May 27 by the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Federal Judge Susan Mollway has struck down a Maui County Ordinance banning GMO crops. "A Bill Placing a Moratorium on the Cultivation of Genetically Modified Engineered Organisms" was passed by ballot initiative on November 4, 2014. Litigation over the Ordinance ensued immediately.
For many persons, estate planning also includes planning for the possibility of long-term health care. Nursing home care is expensive and can require the liquidation of assets to generate the funds necessary to pay the nursing home bill unless appropriate planning has been taken.
Recent announcements of proposed rate hikes by Iowa insurers likely mean that premiums for many individual insurance policies will rise substantially in 2016. Because of these increases, thousands of Iowans who have traditionally purchased health insurance policies from a broker on the individual market may instead decide to shop for policies offered through the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) online healthcare exchange (the Marketplace).
Mistakes happen. Sometimes mistakes lead to legal liability, as in the case of negligence. But sometimes, where it’s apparent that a mistake in an instrument was a mutual one, equity steps in to “reform” the mistake. No harm. No foul. The document is reformed to reflect the true intent of the parties. A recent case from the Iowa Court of Appeals demonstrates the application of this doctrine.
A recent opinion from the Iowa Court of Appeals reminds us of the importance of written plans for family farming businesses.
On January 20, 2015, Dakota Access, LLC, filed with the Iowa Utilities Board a petition for a hazardous liquid pipeline permit.
In this one-hour webinar, Kristine discusses the law of eminent domain in Iowa. Particular emphasis is placed on the legal implications of the Dakota Access crude oil pipeline project pending before the Iowa Utilities Board.
This articles contains information on elder law.
Estate, business and succession planning changed dramatically with the enactment of the American Taxpayer Relief Act (ATRA) in early 2013. Now, with a federal estate tax exemption set at $5.43 million for death in 2015 and a “coupled” gift tax exemption of the same amount, very few estates will be subject to the federal estate tax.
In this webinar, Kristine discusses the basics of establishing an LLC. Although the emphasis is on Iowa law, the concepts are applicable to those from other states as well.
The EPA and Army Corps unveiled their long-awaited final Clean Water Rule on May 27, 2015. The proposed rule had been pending for more than a year.
In this Ag Law webinar, Kristine discusses the legal issues associated with flying unmanned aerial vehicles, also known as unmanned aircraft systems.
The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) of 1976 subjects hazardous material to federal regulation if it is solid waste.
A recent case from the Iowa Court of Appeals reminds us that in order to acquire title to the property of another through a prescriptive easement (a non-exclusive form of adverse possession), the plaintiff must strictly prove the elements of the claim. In this case, the plaintiff proffered no such proof.
The Minnesota Department of Revenue announced special relief last week for poultry producers in Minnesota who were impacted by the H5N2 avian influenza outbreak. The Department announced that these producers will not be assessed penalties or interest if the outbreak prevented them from filing state returns or paying state taxes on time.
A recent Fifth Circuit opinion established that a federal court has jurisdiction to review the EPA’s denial of a rulemaking petition. It did, however, go on to establish a “highly deferential” standard of review, placing upon the agency only a “slight” burden to justify its decision to decline a necessity determination.