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Martinsville, Ohio | Washington, D.C. — Farmers, get ready to let the Agriculture Department look at your tax records.
In an effort to catch wealthy people who are ineligible for farm subsidies, recipients will be required to sign a form allowing the Internal Revenue Service to provide their tax records to USDA.
USDA officials say their inability to get access to IRS records in the past has made it difficult to catch subsidy recipients who exceeded income limits.
The Government Accountability Office last year found 2,702 wealthy individuals who collected $49 million in subsidies in apparent violation of income rules. However, USDA officials weren’t allowed to see the names because GAO investigators had used private IRS records to identify them.
“Once this verification system is fully operational, high-income individuals and entities will be identified by USDA before farm program payments are actually disbursed to them,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.
Under the 2008 farm bill, farmers are ineligible for some subsidies if they have more than $500,000 in non-farm income or $750,000 in farm earnings.
The GAO report found that the founder of an insurance company collected more than $300,000 a year in farm subsidies from 2003 through 2006 despite exceeding a $2.5 million income eligibility limit that was in effect at the time. The part-owner of a professional sports franchise got more than $200,000 a year.
GAO investigated USDA’s enforcement of subsidy eligibility rules at the request of Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Ia | |
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Congress Fights Plans to cut farm subsidies
