Equine

Success beyond the finish line starts with a trusted partnership

With offices in Kentucky, known for its world-class horse farms, racing, and sales, Dean Dorton’s equine industry team has provided accounting, tax, and business consulting services to the horse industry for more than 40 years. Our clients cover a broad spectrum of organizations involved in the Thoroughbred and sporthorse industries:

  • from small boarding farms to large multidepartmental farms involved in boarding, breeding, selling, and stallion management;

  • from racing stables and syndicates to racetracks;

  • from bloodstock agents to equine veterinary firms; and

  • from industry associations to equine insurance agencies.

Not all of our clients are based in Kentucky; horse industry clients from across the United States and internationally also gain comfort from having our industry specialists work with them. As a firm, we endeavor to know the business of horses, not just accounting and tax rules relating to the industry.

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Equine Industry Services

The unique attributes of the equine industry demand accounting and business consulting services with the particular depth of experience and expertise that Dean Dorton delivers. When equine industry participants enlist Dean Dorton to provide tax and consulting services, they can be confident they are engaging a firm with in-depth industry experience and know-how. We are interested in our clients’ business, know the industry, and can provide a wide range of valuable services designed to both optimize savings opportunities and avoid unanticipated problems.

  • Developing strategies to use the optimum forms of organization
  • Reducing exposure to the hobby loss rules
  • Structuring transactions to avoid or minimize sales and use taxes
  • Avoiding or managing the potential impact of the passive activity loss rules
  • Using current and deferred trades of real estate, including farms, to avoid or postpone income taxes
  • Using the involuntary conversion tax rules to defer income taxes on insurance recoveries related to horse and farm casualties
  • Estate planning designed to use valuation and family farm conservation easement incentives, family limited partnership strategies, and deferred tax payments
  • Handling multistate tax issues
  • Helping foreign owners and breeders minimize exposure to U.S. taxes and comply with filing requirements
  • Developing tax accounting systems to comply, where required, with rules requiring capitalization of preproductive period costs
  • Taking advantage of unique tax depreciation rules
  • Representing clients with federal and state tax audits

Equine Financial, Tax, & Operational Update

This full day of training, held in the fall of each year, includes experts from the equine industry covering the latest business, accounting, and tax updates impacting the industry. Some examples of topics covered in this training may include sales and use tax considerations, tax breaks affecting the horse industry, budget best practices, accounting considerations for racing partnerships, succession planning for farm and horse owners, and charitable giving income tax basics.

Next annual seminar: Thursday, October 27, 2022
8:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Location: Castle & Key Distillery

Find out more and register now!

Operational Tools for Your Farm

Are you managing your farm with real-time data? It’s now more important than ever to have access to real-time data that tracks ownership, costs, and revenues of individual horses across their lifetime that you can access anytime, anywhere. Our team can help you evaluate and implement best-in-class software tools to help you be a data-driven industry leader. Learn more about Dean Dorton’s cloud-based accounting tools.

Tax Considerations for Horse and Farm Owners

Surveys and Publications

Dean Dorton’s equine industry team produces surveys and publications each year.

Equine Sales & Use Tax Overview

What is the role of equine sales and use tax in my equine operations? We break down the basics and why these taxes matter for you.

Thoroughbred Horse Farm Compensation Survey

This report focuses on compensation and benefits currently provided by Thoroughbred horse farms across the United States. Individual state reports compared to national results will be issued soon.

Thoroughbred Business Year in Review

This annual publication focuses on Thoroughbred public auction markets, breeders’ costs and profits, stud fees, changes in production costs and yearling selling prices, as well as racing purses and the number of horses racing.

Thoroughbred Farm Operations Survey

This survey focuses on operational matters for Thoroughbred horse farms throughout the United States and Canada. We would like to thank the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) for assisting us to expand this survey nationally.

Benefits of Dean Dorton Equine

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