OPTIMIZING THE TRANSFER OF TAX EXEMPTIONS IN NEW ZEALAND FARM DEVELOPMENT*

Farmers and their advisers frequently face complex problems involving the scheduling of claims for tax exemptions. A case in point is the New Zealand tax law allowing farmers to transfer exemptions associated with development expenditure up to specified time horizons. This paper examines procedures for solving this, and similar, problems. Linear programming could be used, but an alternative algorithm is proposed for farm advisers whose access to computing facilities is limited. The latter procedure is intended for use with forecast budgeting in farm development planning.