Ag Docket Blog
The American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 has ensured that only a select few pay any estate taxes in America. To be liable for estate tax in 2016, for example, you must die with more than $5.45 million in assets. The news gets better for married taxpayers.
A case from the Iowa Court of Appeals last week should warn attorneys and clients that they must remain on the same page during settlement negotiations. If they don’t, the result can be bad…both for the client and the attorney.
The background facts are summarized in these short sentences from the court’s opinion:
The Iowa Court of Appeals issued its opinion today in the seemingly never-ending Baur Farms litigation. The court affirmed the district court’s order, which dismissed the minority shareholder’s lawsuit seeking to dissolve the corporation on grounds of “shareholder oppression.”
By now you’ve probably read about the Pennsylvania woman who was recently sentenced to prison for various crimes stemming from her decades-long scam of posing as a lawyer. She had no law license and had never gone to law school, yet she practiced tax and estate law for 10 years, even becoming a partner of her small firm in rural Pennsylvania and president of her local bar association. Which, of course, begs the question, “How was this possible?”
It’s legislation that completely satisfies no one. However, to the majority of lawmakers, it is a better choice than the prospect of food manufacturers, producers, and retailers facing 50 different standards for disclosing the presence of genetically engineered ingredients in food.
When a court orders a farm lease to continue in light of a contentious relationship, additional litigation is likely to ensue. And that's just what happened in a case decided by the Iowa Court of Appeals yesterday.
Barring unexpected immediate Congressional action, Vermont Act 120, the nation’s first mandatory GMO labeling law, will go into effect tomorrow. What does this mean for the rest of the nation? Most likely it means that we will see preemptive federal GMO labeling legislation in place by at least year-end .
No, the Des Moines Water Works lawsuit has not been settled! Rather, the Iowa Court of Appeals today issued an opinion interpreting a section of Iowa drainage law and determining that it imposes no legal duties on a county board of supervisors.
The Iowa Court of Appeals—while denying a minority owner’s request to have his family LLC dissolved—breathed life back into his quest to receive “fair value” for his 27% ownership interest. The court reversed a trial court order that had directed the brother to transfer his interest in the LLC to the other two owners for no consideration.
A federal bankruptcy case has been shaping interpretation of the Iowa agricultural supply dealer lien statute since the operator of a farrow-to-finish hog facility declared bankruptcy in 2009.
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