How to report farming income or Schedule F

Report income and expenses from farming on Schedule F.

To get you started with preparing your Schedule F using OLT.com, first gather your information regarding to your farm income, such as expense and sales receipts, depreciation schedules, or any other information pertaining to your farm income.

1. If you don't have a tax account with OLT.com, the first thing to do is create an account from our homepage (click o "start now").

2. Within your tax return, select Schedule F from the Income Section Checklist.  Scroll down to the section, "Farm Income or Losses" (show more), click start at the Schedule F. 

3. Answer the initial questions regarding your farm, such as name of proprietor and principal product. If you produce more than one product, select the product that produces the most income.

4. Select whether you materially participated in the farm activities during the tax year. Material participation means you invested money and were active in the operation of the farm. Also, if you are a retired or disabled farmer, you are treated as materially participating in a farming business if you materially participated 5 or more of the last 8 years preceding your retirement or disability. A surviving spouse is treated as materially participating if he or she actively manages the farm and the real property used for farming meets the estate tax rules for special valuation of farm property passed from a qualifying decedent.

5. Enter the income you earned from farming. If you received a 1099-MISC showing farm income, do not enter this amount again here, or your income will be doubled.

6. Enter your farm expenses on the line for each type of expense. For vehicle expenses, you may take either the standard mileage rate or actual expenses.

7. If you used a portion of your home regularly and exclusively for farm use, such as a home office used exclusively for the farm, you may be able to take the Business Use of Home deduction.

8. If you have any other expenses to enter, provide a description and amount of the expense.

9. Select if you would like to complete the Self Employed Insurance Deduction Worksheet.