DATA DRAFT

Virginia farm product demand drops

The four-year surge in demand for Virginia’s agricultural products halted last year. After hitting $3.35 billion in 2014 (a 14 percent growth over 2013), demand for those products in 2015 declined by 4.7 PERCENT to $3.19 BILLION.

The decrease reflects a larger nationwide trend of declining commodity prices, especially in soybeans (Virginia’s largest farm export). Other countries had record crop yields and some foreign markets had new trade barriers or higher shipping costs. The top three countries importing Virginia agricultural products are:

1. China: $694 million 2. Canada: $291 million 3. Switzerland: $204 million

What Virginia products have other countries clamoring? Soybeans, pork, lumber/logs, soybean meal, leaf tobacco and many others.

Virginia is still the second-largest farm product exporter in the East Coast (behind Georgia), even though its number of smaller farms in 2015 declined 3 PERCENT from 2014, from 45,900 to 44,700. According to the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, the size of the average farm slightly increased. There were 8.1 MILLION acres of farmland in the Commonwealth in 2015. n

A GOOD BET FOR GROWTH

What shows more sales growth than private companies overall? Accounting firms, that’s what. A Sageworks survey found that firms providing accounting, tax prep, bookkeeping or payroll services had a 12 PERCENT growth in sales in 2015. That’s a jump from 9.5 percent in 2014 and 7.6 percent over the last five years. n

YOU’VE GOT (NASTY) MAIL!

Taxpayers received some unwelcome surprises last winter in their email inboxes. The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) alerted consumers and taxpayers after it saw a whopping 400 PERCENT increase in phishing and malware incidents in the 2015 tax season. The fraudulent emails were confusing — designed to trick taxpayers into thinking they were official communications from the IRS or tax software companies. The emails asked for a wide range of personal information, such as PINs, filing status, refund info and more. Some taxpayers even received fraudulent text messages. n

Virginia drivers pay high taxes

Virginia has one of the highest vehicle property taxes in the nation, according to WalletHub. In a ranking of all states and the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth was NO. 50 — just behind Rhode Island. Virginia currently taxes vehicles at 4.19 percent. Only Virginia and Rhode Island tax over 4 percent; 23 states and D.C. have no vehicle tax. That means that, for an average $23,000 car, Virginia drivers will pay $966 in taxes per year.

The Commonwealth fares better when it comes to real estate property taxes. It ranks NO. 16 with a tax rate of 0.8 percent. So the annual taxes on a $243,500 home (the median price for a home in Virginia) are $1,941. New Jersey takes the No. 1 spot at 2.29 percent. n