USDA Partners With IRS to Reduce Farm Program Fraud

USDA has partnered with the Internal Revenue Service to reduce fraud in farm programs and streamline payment limits for family farmers. The two agencies finalized a memorandum of understanding last week that will establish an electronic information exchange process to ensure that payments are not issued to producers whose adjusted gross income exceeds certain limits for programs administered by the Farm Service Agency and Natural Resource Conservation Service. According to a USDA press release, the electronic process reviews data from tax returns, performs a series of calculations and compares these values to the adjusted gross income limitations set by the 2008 Farm Bill.