Farmers should always use the alternate Self Employment Tax computation when they have loss years to assure Social Security Disability Insurance Coverage.
It’s a small price to pay to maintain coverage.
I used it recently to get a farmer’s wife benefits when her husband died. They had not filed returns for many years due to farm losses. I went back, filed the old returns using alternate SE method under her name as she was co-owner of the farm and got her disability benefits for life. She was truly disabled prior to her husband’s death and had zero income after he died.
Bump to myself as a reminder to look at all of these posts. Sole proprietor turning 65 soon. My old man lived to be 72, as did his dad before him. Mom lived until 95, her mom until 99.
My older siblings are still very healthy so maybe we all got mom’s genes??