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Whether or not they make use of traditional and time honoured farming techniques, many farms are run alongside traditional lines as family owned and also operated companies and other than in the case of big commercial businesses similar to Farming Legislation - Avoiding Issues in Agriculture Collaborations, most farms do not take advantage of contemporary business structures such as limited liability businesses. Instead the head of the family manages the business like a sole trader and once his children are of sufficient age to help out using the management of the farm, the company usually becomes a joint venture.
Specific rules have typically applied to the taxation of farming businesses and to how these businesses make up their accounts and those rules have frequently been more easygoing than those applied to most other businesses - for instance, allowing farmers to be able to estimate the value of specific items within their accounts rather than supply definite figures.
With the undeniable fact that the demands of managing the farm leave farmers with little time for paperwork, that has resulted in a high degree of legal informality within the agricultural sector. For instance, the conditions of any relationship are often not set out in writing and there can sometimes be a lot of confusion concerning the property that is owned by the partnership and also the property which belongs to specific family members. There are no legal formalities for creating a partnership, and it is possible to operate a company like a partnership without putting this in writing. However, this is not advisable because in the lack of a proper partnership agreement, the laws will impose specific terms in the partnership which might not be desired. In addition, if a dispute occurs amongst the partners (or even between the partners and family members who are not partners) prolonged court action might be required if there is no clear declaration of the actual joint venture.
A specialist agricultural law lawyer can often draw up a partnership agreement which specifically satisfies the requirements of a farming business quickly and easily. A contract of the type can help to prevent disputes from coming up by clearly defining the legal rights and responsibilities of all members of that collaboration.