Preventing fraud may preclude gentlemen’s agreements

Many a deal is concluded with a firm handshake, a smile and a few scuffles of a boot in the dirt on farms and ranches across the country — but that level of trust may soon be as rare as handwritten letters. A “gentlemen’s agreement” is often all that’s required to conduct business in rural America, but that may not be enough anymore, says Jason Thomas, CPA, JD, and senior tax manager at Frost PLLC, certified public accountants in Little Rock, Ark. “Is the gentlemen’s agreement obsolete?” he asked at a Beef Financial Management Conference in Amarillo, Texas. “That may be a little too strong, but business is becoming less personal, and farmers and ranchers are making fewer one-on-one deals.” A bankruptcy case about a year ago involving the Eastern Livestock Company, LLC, proves the point, Thomas says...more