Shawn Terrel grew up in a farming and custom harvesting family in Oklahoma, and has spent most of his career working in the agricultural industry. For the past 18 years, Terrel has been involved with the auction services provided by United Country Real Estate, a century-old company that prides itself in constantly being at the forefront of innovation and technology.

With so much ag experience in his background and current position, Terrel says he was surprised when he became involved in a conversation about Legacy Nutrient Deductions – something that has been available for decades – and realized, “I didn’t know what they were talking about.”

Legacy Nutrient Deductions — “LNDs” — are federal tax deductions based on the value of the agriculturally necessary nutrients present in a landowner’s soil at the time of acquisition or inheritance. “My entire life has been spent in and around agriculture, and I had never heard of this,” Terrel says. “I found that highly interesting. If it’s been around that long and people haven’t heard about it, then it’s being grossly underutilized.”

United Country Real Estate is determined to change that underutilization via a recently formed partnership with Boa Safra Ag, an Iowa-based company that specializes in the data collection, analytics, and reporting in accordance with IRS guidelines to enable owners of farmland, ranchland, and timberland to benefit from these deductions.

Zack Porter, one of the owners of Boa Safra Ag, says most landowners are familiar with the ability to receive tax benefits by depreciating tangible items such as farm equipment and irrigation systems. However, many are just learning about these one-time-per-owner deductions that have been in the tax code since 1960.

For decades, however, the deduction was rarely utilized. Cost was one factor. So was the lack of specific IRS guidance. It wasn’t until 1995 that the IRS provided the necessary guidance. In the decades since then, advancements in technology and agronomic science have made this deduction far more accessible to landowners. As a result, Porter has seen properties purchased or inherited since the early 2000s receive substantial financial benefits with Legacy Nutrient Deductions.

“There are many landowners who have qualifying land and can benefit from this who still don’t know that Legacy Nutrient Deductions are a thing, partly because it’s not industry standard,” Porter says. “What better way to help pole-vault forward to making this industry standard than by partnering with the largest brokerage firm in the US. United Country has amazing reach, and they can take Legacy Nutrient Deductions and help it achieve a greater scale.”

Since 2019, Boa Safra has provided this service to more than 5,000 clients across all the Lower 48 states, creating an average deduction of $1,700 per acre. Terrel says United Country is now encouraging its nearly 500 offices to promote Legacy Nutrient Deductions to their clients.

“Sometimes innovation happens, but the word doesn’t get out right away. This is one of those cases,” Terrel says. “We believe in the product and the services that Boa Safra can deliver to clients, and they believe that what we’ve built over 100 years in the land industry can serve as a catalyst to spread the word about this opportunity. It gives us a great discussion point with clients about something that is being underutilized in the marketplace.”