Participating in the programs

You can choose to participate in AgriStability only, AgriInvest only, or both programs together, depending on the business risk management needs of your farm.

As a program participant, you are responsible for knowing program deadlines and understanding program policies. For more information, contact your Administration or visit the program websites.

AgriStability

AgriStability is a voluntary program that provides support when you experience larger income losses.

Are you eligible?

To participate in AgriStability for the 2017 program year, you must:

• file a Form T1163;
• file a 2017 Canadian income tax return reporting eligible farming business income (or loss) by December 31, 2018; and
• meet all program requirements by the deadlines.
• In addition, you must have:
• enrolled in the program and paid your fee by the deadline shown on your Enrolment Notice;
• completed a minimum of six consecutive months of farming activity; and
• completed a production cycle (for example, growing and harvesting a crop or rearing livestock).
  

If you are a Status Indian farming on a reserve and you are not required to file an income tax return, contact your Administration for a copy of the form and guide you need to complete.

For more information on eligibility, contact your Administration or visit the program websites.

How to participate

Complete and send your Form T1163 by the deadline. For more information on program deadlines, see Dates to Remember.

AgriStability benefit calculations

AgriStability is based on margins.

Program margin – your allowable income minus your allowable expenses in the current year adjusted for changes in purchased inputs, receivables, payables, and inventory.

Reference margin – your average program margin for three of the past five years (the lowest and highest margins are dropped from the calculation).

Reference margin limit – your average allowable expenses for the three years used in your reference margin calculation.

Generally, you will receive an AgriStability payment when your program margin in the current year falls below 70% of either your reference margin or your reference margin limit, whichever is lower.

AgriStability program fee

You must pay an annual fee to participate in AgriStability. The fee is $3.15 for every $1,000.00 of contribution reference margin protected (based on coverage of 70% of your margin). The minimum fee is $45.00.

AgriStability administrative cost share (ACS)

You must pay $55.00 each year for administration costs.

Send your AgriStability fee and ACS directly to your Administration. For more information, contact your Administration.

Do not send payments for the AgriStability or AgriInvest programs with your income tax return. The CRA will credit any payments you include with your income tax return to your income tax account.

AgriInvest

AgriInvest is a voluntary program that provides you with a self-managed producer-government savings account. AgriInvest is designed to help you manage small income declines and make investments to manage risk and improve market income.

Each year you can deposit money into an AgriInvest account and receive matching government contributions. You can withdraw the money when you need it.

Are you eligible?

To participate in AgriInvest for the 2017 program year you must:

• file a Form T1163;
• file a 2017 Canadian income tax return reporting eligible farming business income (or loss) by December 31, 2018; and
• meet all program requirements by the deadlines.

If you are a Status Indian farming on a reserve and you are not required to file an income tax return, contact your Administration for a copy of the form and guide you need to complete.

For more information on eligibility, see the AgriInvest Program Handbook or go to AgriInvest.

How to participate

Complete and send your Form T1163 by the deadline. For more information on program deadlines, see Dates to Remember.

AgriInvest benefit calculations

AgriInvest deposits are based on a percentage of your Allowable Net Sales (ANS). Allowable Net Sales are your total allowable commodity sales and program payments minus your total allowable commodity purchases and repayment of program benefits.

Once we process your form, we will send you a Deposit Notice showing your deposit options.

Form T1163, Statement A – AgriStability and AgriInvest Programs Information and Statement of Farming Activities for Individuals

As a self-employed farmer, you must give us a statement that accurately shows your farming activities for the year. Use Form T1163 to report your income and expenses for income tax purposes and to report your farming information for AgriStability and AgriInvest. To get this form, go to Forms and publications.

Deceased participant

If a deceased individual had farming income or losses, complete Form T1163 in the name of the deceased individual. Print "Estate" in the name area. Use the income and expenses that you are reporting on the individual's final income tax return for 2017.

Send copies of the individual's death certificate and the probated will (or letters of administration) to the CRA with the final income tax return and to your AgriStability and AgriInvest Administration.

If you also file an optional return for the year of death, such as a return of rights and things, contact your Administration to get the correct form to provide this information to your Administration.

Prepare an additional Form T1163 in the name of the surviving spouse or common-law partner if a beneficiary continues the farming business. Contact your Administration to get the correct form if a trust has been established for the surviving spouse or common-law partner. Use the income and expenses from the surviving spouse or common-law partner's 2017 income tax return. For more information about applying as a trust, contact your Administration.

Form T1164, Statement B – AgriStability and AgriInvest Programs Information and Statement of Farming Activities for Additional Farming Operations

You may have more than one farming operation. For example, you could have a sole proprietorship and be a partner in a partnership. If you have more than one farming operation, complete Form T1163 for one operation and a separate Form T1164 for each additional operation. To get these forms, go to Forms and publications.

Additional expenses (partnerships)

Complete Form T1164 if you have reported a partnership operation on Form T1163 and you want to deduct additional expenses for which the partnership did not reimburse you. For example, you may want to deduct the farming business part of allowable motor vehicle expenses or business-use-of-home expenses.

• If you are using Form T1164 to deduct business-use-of-home expenses, follow these steps:
• leave the income areas of page 1 blank;
• report your expenses on the appropriate lines of page 2;
• enter the total expense from page 2 to Line 9968 of page 3;
• do not complete the "Partnership information" area of page 3;
• do not make an entry on "Line 9934 – Adjustment to business-use-of-home expenses;" and
• complete Form T1175, Farming – Calculation of Capital Cost Allowance (CCA) and Business-use-of-home Expenses.

The amount you claim reduces your net income from farming on line 141 of your income tax return. However, you cannot use business-use-of-home expenses to create or increase a loss from farming.

Completing the forms

By completing Forms T1163 and Form T1164, you authorize:

• the CRA to share information from your income tax return with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada; and
• Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada to share the information from your form and any additional information that you provide with:
  • provincial and territorial ministers of agriculture; and
  • administrators of other federal or provincial farm programs.

The information is used for:

• audit;
• analysis;
• evaluation; and
• special assistance payments.

For more information, see Confidential information and participant consent on page 2 of Form T1163.

The Privacy Act gives you the right to access your personal information held by the Government of Canada and make any corrections to your information.

If you want to access or correct your personal information, contact the Access to Information and Privacy Coordinator at:

Access to Information and Privacy Office
Agriculture and Agri-FoodCanada
Tower 7, 10th floor, Room 211
1341 Baseline Road
Ottawa ON K1A 0C5
Telephone: 613-773-0970
Fax:613-773-1380

For general inquiries on privacy of personal information, contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) at:

Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
30 Victoria Street
Gatineau QC K1A 1H3
Toll-free telephone: 1-800-282-1376
Telephone: 819-994-5444
TTY: 819-994-6591
Website: priv.gc.ca

If you have a complaint under the Privacy Act, contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.

Adjustments

If you would like to change the information you included on Form T1163 or T1164, you must send the amended information to both your provincial Administration and the CRA.

If you are an AgriInvest participant, use Form RC322 to send your amendment to the federal Administration as well. For more information on adjustments, contact your Administration.

For adjustments that affect your net income, send Form T1-ADJ, T1 Adjustment Request to the CRA.

The following text explains how to complete Form T1163.

Participant information

Participant identification

Enter your first and last name.

Enter your Participant Identification Number (PIN). You can find your PIN on your:

• AgriStability Enrolment Notice; or
• AgiInvest Deposit Notice.

If you cannot find your PIN, contact your Administration.

Enter your social insurance number (SIN).

Enter your telephone and fax numbers (if applicable).

Your farming information

Province/Territory of main farmstead

Enter the province or territory where you earned most or all of your gross farming income over the previous five years.

For more information on province of main farmstead and multi-jurisdiction farms, contact your Administration or visit the program websites.

Number of years farmed

Enter the number of years you have farmed.

Final year of farming

Answer "Yes" if 2017 is your final year of farming.

Industry code

Enter the industry code that best describes your activity.

If more than 50% of your business involved one specific activity, choose the code that identifies that main activity. However, if your business is involved in more than one type of economic activity, and none of the codes make up more than 50% of your business, choose the appropriate level of code from the list.

When you are filing your return electronically, you have to use the industry codes available from your tax preparation software.

The industry codes listed in this guide are from the 2017 version of the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Canada.

There are thousands of NAICS codes. The following are examples of codes for farming operations.

Livestock farm

• 112110 Beef cattle ranching and farming, including feedlots
• 112120 Dairy cattle and milk production
• 112210 Hog and pig farming
• 112310 Chicken egg production
• 112320 Broiler and other meat type chicken production
• 112330 Turkey production
• 112340 Poultry hatcheries
• 112391 Combination poultry and egg production
• 112399 All other poultry production
• 112410 Sheep farming
• 112420 Goat farming
• 112510 Aquaculture
• 112991 Animal combination farming
• 115210 Support activities for animal production

Other animal specialties farm

• 112910 Apiculture
• 112920 Horses and other equines
• 112930 Fur-bearing animals and rabbits
• 112999 All other miscellaneous animals

Field-crop farm

• 111110 Soybeans
• 111120 Oilseed (except soybean) farming
• 111130 Dry pea and bean farming
• 111140 Wheat farming
• 111150 Corn farming
• 111190 Other grain farming
• 111211 Potato farming
• 111219 Other vegetables (except potato) and melon farming
• 111330 Non-citrus fruit and tree nuts
• 111411 Mushroom production
• 111419 Other food crops grown under cover
• 111421 Nursery and tree production
• 111422 Floriculture
• 111910 Tobacco farming
• 111940 Hay farming
• 111993 Fruit and vegetable combination farming
• 111994 Maple syrup and products production
• 111999 All other miscellaneous crop farming
• 115110 Support activities for crop production

Production cycle

Answer "Yes" or "No" to show if you have completed a production cycle on at least one of the commodities you produce.

You must complete a production cycle to be eligible for AgriStability. We may waive this condition if you experienced a disaster.

A production cycle includes at least one of the following:

• growing and harvesting a crop;
• rearing livestock;
• buying and selling livestock within a program year for feeding or finishing enterprises.

You do not need to complete a production cycle to be eligible for AgriInvest.

Contact person information

Complete this area if you give permission to someone else (such as your spouse, common-law partner, or accountant) to provide or ask for information about your AgriInvest form. We will call your contact person if we have a question. We will send correspondence to both you and your contact person.

Tick the box if you have a contact person.

Enter the first and last name of your contact person, their business name (if applicable), address, and telephone and fax numbers.

If you leave this area blank, we will contact you directly if we have a question.

For AgriStability, contact your provincial Administration if you want to add or change your AgriStability contact information.

Federal public office holder or employee of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC)

If you or anyone involved in completing this form is a current or former federal public office holder or employee of AAFC, answer "Yes" to this question. If you are a partner in a partnership and at least one of your partners is a current or former federal public office holder or employee of AAFC, answer "Yes."

Identification

In the following section of the form, only provide information about your main farming operation (Operation #1). Complete Form T1164 for each additional farming operation you have. Number each operation in the box at the top right-hand corner of each page.

Fiscal period

Enter the fiscal period for your operation. Report the beginning and end of the farm's business year by the year, month, and day. Your farm's 2017 fiscal period must end in the 2017 tax year.

Method of accounting

Use the same method of reporting (cash or accrual) for program purposes as you use for income tax. Enter:

• code 1 for accrual method; or
• code 2 for cash method.

Was your farming operation involved in any of the following?

Tick the applicable box if you carried on business:

• as a member of a feeder association; or
• in a crop share arrangement as either a landlord or a tenant.

For your main farming operation (Operation #1), enter this information on Form T1163. For your other operations, enter this information on Form T1164.