One of the provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act is intended to provide financial help to farmers, ranchers and forest landowners who experienced discrimination from the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) prior to 2021. Applications for the USDA Financial Discrimination Assistance Program were due Jan. 17, 2024. The IRS recently released FAQs (https://bit.ly/42RXbWI ) about the tax treatment of program payments taxpayers received. Payments generally are includable in gross income. However, depending on whether there’s a nexus between a payment and a taxpayer’s business, payments may not be subject to self-employment tax. Fees for related attorney advice are usually deductible.
