Educator: Poppy Davis JD, C2C Consulting

This session provides a framework for understanding the legal, tax and accounting structures of land-based business (including farms and ranches) and all other types of enterprises.  This framework helps in understanding why to form a business entity, what assets to put in the entity, what assets to hold personally, and how and why to pay rent for business use of personal assets. This framework is essential to understand how income taxes work and to begin planning for retirement and succession. We will also look at the types of agreements people make regarding ownership, rent, sales and purchases, and services, and we will take a brief look at the importance of understanding who may be paid as an independent contractor and who must be paid as an employee.

Poppy Davis

 https://www.linkedin.com/in/poppydavis

Poppy Davis is a business and policy adviser to agricultural and food and beverage enterprises, and to nonprofits and local governments. She provides farmers and ranchers with training and technical assistance on issues such as business formation, land tenure, credit, taxation, liability, regulatory compliance, and value-added inventory.  She works directly with nonprofits, associations, and local governments to help them develop financial and managerial capacity and programs to improve the environment for farming, ranching, and healthy food access.

She worked eight years at the USDA, most recently as the National Program Leader for Small Farms and Beginning Farmers and Ranchers. Previously she was a California CPA with an emphasis in agricultural enterprises and non-profits. She holds a Juris Doctor with a Certificate in Food and Agriculture from Drake University Law School, a Masters in Journalism from Georgetown, and a BS in Agricultural Economics from the University of California at Davis.