In May, the USDA released a listing of the top 100 agricultural cooperatives, highlighting their near record-breaking successes in 2010. According to the listing, the coops had combined revenue of $118 billion, with 23 of the listed 100 coops reporting revenue of more than $1 billion, and 47 more of the coops boasting over $500 million in revenue! Additionally, the asset base and profit margins increased for all 100 coops on the listing.

The Limited Cooperative association structure would allow you the flexibility to accept outside investor equity. The outside equity may afford your cooperative the advantage of timely opportunities or to balance your debt and equity capital structure. We are not encouraging this structure for all of our cooperatives, but we have seen enough through the last 48 years to know that it is worth considering; particularly as our cooperative clients continue to grow. We are not attorneys, so we would have to direct you to the legal resources to address the details. Contact your Gardiner Thomsen partner or manager if you would like to start the discussion.

On June 16, 2011, the FASB issued ASU 2011-05, eliminating one of the three existing presentation options for other comprehensive income and requiring reclassification adjustments to be reported on the face of the financial statements rather than in the notes as currently permitted. For non-public entities, this amendment is effective for fiscal years ending after December 15, 2012 and is to be applied retrospectively. If no items of other comprehensive income are present in any of the years presented in the financial statements, this standard does not apply.

We would like to take a moment to thank all of you who came out to see us in our hospitality room at last year’s CHS Meeting in Minneapolis. We had over 100 attendees, and gave away American Express® gift cards, golf balls and the grand prize: a Kindle Fire E-reader. We hope you will join us for 2012’s meeting in our hospitality room, and thank you again for helping us make this year’s meeting a great success!

If you haven’t yet filed forms 1096 or W-3 with the IRS or SSA, it will be easier to fix a mistake on them without the need to file amended returns. However, if you have already filed forms 1096 or W-3 with the government, and there are errors on those forms, then you will also have to file amended reports which can be complicated and time consuming. So, file those 1096s and W-3s closer to their due date to avoid potential amended return filings.

We want to be certain that you are taking full advantage of the many tax credits available to cooperatives. We are also taking steps to improve our communication with you regarding these credits. Following are some of the credits that our clients may qualify for: