Shedrow Photo courtesy of Connor Allessie/Facebook
OwnerView Thoroughbred Owner Conference Virtual Series Begins with Panel on Audits
The Jockey Club Press Release
LEXINGTON, Ky.—The 2024 Thoroughbred Owner Conference hosted its first panel Tuesday, March 5, with a discussion about how Thoroughbred owners can avoid, prepare for and survive an audit. The conference is hosted by The Jockey Club and the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association and presented by Bessemer Trust, Stoll Keenon Ogden, and The Green Group. The panel was sponsored by Mersant International.
Gary Falter, project manager for OwnerView, moderated the panel with guests Len Green, founder and chairman of The Green Group, and Frank Palino, Tax Controversy & Divorce Mediation, The Green Group.
The panel delved into the intricacies of how the Internal Revenue Service views horse and farm owners and how those owners can best prepare for tax season.
A Q&A was sponsored by West Point Thoroughbreds, and attendees were able to ask questions through a Q&A link. Questions were answered toward the beginning and end of the webinar.
The panel started with the importance of running a horse operation as a business. “The first thing you have to decide is which niche of the business you want to be in and then try to be as good as you can in that business by learning as much as you can, and then running it in a business-like manner,” said Green.
Palino then explained ways the IRS chooses businesses to be audited. “There are a few reasons to be audited. They go by DIF score, where they look at your income and your expenses and analyze what other industry does in that same type of setting. Also, a lot of people forget, if someone that you’re doing business with, they get audited, there’s a possibility your name may pop up, and that might cause you to get audited because they got audited.”
Other topics covered the importance of a business plan and an LLC, red flags for being audited, showing profit, and hobby and passive losses.
The replay of Tuesday’s Thoroughbred Owner Conference panel
Nine additional Thoroughbred Owner Conference virtual panels are scheduled for 2024.
The next session, “Information Resources for Owners,” will be held April 9 at 2 p.m. ET. A full schedule can be found here: bit.ly/OVSchedule.
There is no registration fee for the 2024 virtual conference series, but registration is required. For more information about the owner conference series, including the schedule of panels and registration, please visit ownerview.com/event/conference or contact Gary Falter at 859.224.2803 or gfalter@jockeyclub.com.
OwnerView is a joint effort spearheaded by The Jockey Club and the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association to encourage ownership of Thoroughbreds and provide accurate information on aspects of ownership such as trainers, public racing syndicates, the process of purchasing and owning a Thoroughbred, racehorse retirement, and owner licensing.
