Hedging: Farm Business Taxes (2025 IRS Guide)

This guide covers “Hedging” within farm business taxes. The following material presents the IRS treatment of this topic, including the qualifications, exceptions, and examples in the source section. Read the rules alongside the facts of your own situation before deciding what to report, deduct, or document.

Adapted from Publication 225 (2025), Farmer's Tax Guide, published by the Internal Revenue Service. This guide retains the source edition’s years, amounts, deadlines, and examples. It is guidance for that edition, not a statement that the same figures apply to every tax year.

Context for these rules

Generally, you will have a capital gain or loss if you sell or exchange a capital asset (defined below). You may also have a capital gain if your section 1231 transactions result in a net gain. See Section 1231 Gains and Losses in
chapter 9.

To figure your net capital gain or loss, you must classify your gains and losses as either ordinary or capital, and your capital gains or losses as either short term or long term.

Your net capital gains may be taxed at a lower tax rate than ordinary income. See Capital Gains Tax Rates, later. Your deduction for a net capital loss may be limited. See Treatment of Capital Losses, later.

Hedging

Hedging transactions are transactions that you enter into in the normal course of business primarily to manage the risk of interest rate or price changes, or currency fluctuations, with respect to borrowings, ordinary property, or ordinary obligations. Ordinary property or obligations are those that cannot produce capital gain or loss if sold or exchanged.

A commodity futures contract is a standardized, exchange-traded contract for the sale or purchase of a fixed amount of a commodity at a future date for a fixed price. The holder of an option on a futures contract has the right (but not the obligation) for a specified period of time to enter into a futures contract to buy or sell at a particular price.

A forward contract is much different from a futures contract because its terms are not standardized and it is not exchange traded.

Businesses may enter into commodity futures contracts or forward contracts and may acquire options on commodity futures contracts as either of the following.

• Hedging transactions.

• Transactions that are not hedging transactions.

Futures transactions with exchange-traded commodity futures contracts that are not hedging transactions generally result in capital gain or loss and are subject to the mark-to-market rules discussed in Pub. 550. There is a limit on the amount of capital losses you can deduct each year. Hedging transactions are not subject to the mark-to-market rules and the deduction for hedging losses is not limited.

If, as a farmer-producer, to protect yourself from the risk of unfavorable price fluctuations, you enter into commodity forward contracts, futures contracts, or options on futures contracts and the contracts cover an amount of the commodity within your range of production, the transactions are generally considered hedging transactions. They can take place at any time you have the commodity under production, have it on hand for sale, or reasonably expect to have it on hand.

The gain or loss on the termination of these hedges is generally ordinary gain or loss. Farmers who file their income tax returns on the cash method report any profit or loss on the hedging transaction on Schedule F, line 8.

Gains or losses from hedging transactions that hedge supplies of a type regularly used or consumed in the ordinary course of your trade or business may be ordinary gains or losses. Examples include fuel and feed.

.If you have numerous transactions in the commodity futures market during the year, you must be able to show which transactions are hedging transactions. Clearly identify a hedging transaction on your books and records before the end of the day you entered into the transaction. It may be helpful to have separate brokerage accounts for your hedging and speculation transactions. .

Retain the identification of each hedging transaction with your books and records. Also, identify the item(s) or aggregate risk that is being hedged in your records. Although the identification of the hedging transaction must be made before the end of the day it was entered into, you have 35 days after entering into the transaction to identify the hedged item(s) or risk.

For more information on the tax treatment of futures and options contracts, see Commodity Futures and Section 1256 Contracts Marked to Market in Pub. 550.

Accounting methods for hedging transactions.

The accounting method you use for a hedging transaction must clearly reflect income. This means that your accounting method must reasonably match the timing of income, deduction, gain, or loss from a hedging transaction with the timing of income, deduction, gain, or loss from the item or items being hedged. There are requirements and limits on the method you can use for certain hedging transactions. See Regulations section 1.446-4(e) for those requirements and limits.

Hedging transactions must be accounted for under the rules stated above unless the transaction is subject to mark-to-market accounting under section 475 or you use an accounting method other than the following methods.

1. Cash method.

2. Farm-price method.

3. Unit-livestock-price method.

Once you adopt a method, you must apply it consistently and must have IRS approval before changing it.

Your books and records must describe the accounting method used for each type of hedging transaction. They must also contain any additional identification necessary to verify the application of the accounting method you used for the transaction. You must make the additional identification no more than 35 days after entering into the hedging transaction.

Example of a hedging transaction.

You are a calendar year taxpayer and file your income tax returns on the cash method. On July 2, you anticipate a yield of 50,000 bushels of corn this year. The December futures price is $5.75 a bushel, but there are indications that by harvest time the price will drop. To protect yourself against a drop in the price, you enter into the following hedging transaction. You sell 10 December futures contracts of 5,000 bushels each for a total of 50,000 bushels of corn at $5.75 a bushel.

The price did not drop as anticipated but rose to $6 a bushel. In November, you sell your crop at a local elevator for $6 a bushel. You also close out your futures position by buying 10 December contracts for $6 a bushel. You paid a broker’s commission of $1,400 ($70 per contract) for the complete in-and-out position in the futures market.

The result is that the price of corn rose 25 cents a bushel and the actual selling price is $6 a bushel. Your loss on the hedge is 25 cents a bushel. In effect, the net selling price of your corn is $5.75 a bushel.

Report the results of your futures transactions and your sale of corn separately on Schedule F. See the Instructions for Schedule F (Form 1040).

The loss on your futures transactions is $13,900, figured as follows.

This loss is reported as a negative figure on Schedule F, Part I, line 8, as other income.

The proceeds from your corn sale at the local elevator are $300,000 (50,000 bu. × $6). Report it on Schedule F, Part I, line 2, as income from sales of products you raised.

Assume you were right and the price went down 25 cents a bushel. In effect, you would still net $5.75 a bushel, figured as follows.

The gain on your futures transactions would have been $11,100, figured as follows.

The $11,100 is reported on Schedule F, Part I, line 8, as other income.

The proceeds from the sale of your corn at the local elevator, $275,000 (50,000 bu. x $5.50), are reported on Schedule F, Part I, line 2, as income from sales of products you raised.

Using the guidance

Keep the documents that establish the dates, amounts, and circumstances described above. References to other chapters, forms, worksheets, or earlier and later sections refer to the linked IRS publication. Check the full publication and its updates before relying on a rule for a different tax year or a situation not addressed here.

Sources and further reading

• Publication 225 (2025), Farmer's Tax Guide: Gains and Losses — Ordinary or Capital Gain or Loss — Hedging — Internal Revenue Service; 2025 edition.

The cited U.S. government text is in the public domain. Source accessed October 28, 2026. Fynoptic has organized this material for educational use and is independent of, and not endorsed by, the IRS.