Neil E. Harl Dr.

Charles F. Curtiss Distinguished Professor
harl_neil_2015

Neil E. Harl is Charles F. Curtiss Distinguished Professor in Agriculture and Emeritus Professor of Economics at Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa. He is a member of the Iowa Bar. Dr. Harl was Director of the Center for International Agricultural Finance from 1990 through 2004. His major fields of law interest include estate planning and taxation, business planning and agricultural law.

Dr. Harl has published widely including 29 books; more than 400 professional articles and bulletins; and more than 850 articles in farm and financial publications. He is author of the two volume treatise, Farm Income Tax Manual, the single volume Agricultural Law Manual and the 17th edition of Farm Estate and Business Planning , published in 2013. He is also the author of the 15-volume treatise, Agricultural Law, LexisNexis/Matthew Bender & Co.;  the single volume, The Farm Debt Crisis of the 1980s, Iowa State University Press; and Arrogance and Power: The Saga of WOI-TV, 2001; the single volume, Farm Estate and Business Planning, 18th edition 2014 (the item sent listed the 17th edition).

He has received more than 30 major awards including the USDA Superior Service Award in 1987; the President’s Award from the Iowa State Bar Association in 1991; Charles A. Black Award from the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology in 1997, for effectiveness in communicating with the public; the Distinguished Service to Agriculture award from the Chicago Farmers Club in 1999, the Wallaces Farmer Iowa Master Farmer Award for Exceptional Service to Agriculture in 2000; the Speaker of the Year Award by the National Society of Accountants in 2000; the Presidential Service Award from Iowa State University in 2002; Award for Service to American and World Agriculture, National Association of County Agricultural Agents in 2006, Order of the Knoll Award, Iowa State University Foundation, 2013; dedication of Harl Commons on the Iowa State University Campus, 2013. In 1986, he received the first Farm Leader of the Year Award  by the Des Moines Register, the Distinguished Service Award from the State of Iowa for work on the farm debt crisis, the Distinguished Service to State Government Award from the National Governors'  Association, also for work on the farm debt crisis, the Distinguished Service Award from Iowa State University, also in 1986  and was named a Fellow of the American Agricultural Economics Association the same year.  He  received the Charles A. Black Award from the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology in 1994 for effectiveness in communicating with the public. He has also received the Superior Service Award  from the United States Department of Agriculture. In 2013, Dr. Harl received the Iowa State University Faculty and Staff Award for meritorious service to the institution. Dr. Harl and his wife, Darlene, have been honored by the naming of a portion of Curtiss Hall on the Iowa  State University Campus as the "Neil and Darlene Harl Commons." He was made a Charles F. Curtiss Distinguished Professor in Agriculture in 1976 at the age of 42, one of the youngest to achieve that status at the institution. 

Dr. Harl has served on seven federal advisory bodies – a Farm Tax Reform Task Force for the U.S. Department of the Treasury in 1967; the Commissioner's Advisory Group (Commissioner of Internal Revenue) in 1979 - 80; the USDA Farm Structure Task Force in 1980; the Office of Technology Assessment, Technical Advisory Committee, by Congressional Appointment, 1987 - 1995 (chair in 1993 - 94); the USDA Advisory Committee on Agricultural Biotechnology, 2000 - 2002; and the Commission on Federal Payment Limitations in Agriculture, 2002 - 2003. Dr. Harl was a member of  the seven person panel as the First Working Group to Assess the U.S. Response to the needs of transitioning economies in Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union in 1990. He served as the founding chair of the Center for International Agricultural Finance at Iowa State University which conducted 79 schools in banking, credit, finance, free market economics, central banking and bankruptcy throughout the group of countries transitioning to a market economy from central planning from 1990 through 2004 and has been credited with major contributions to the transitioning process.

Education:
Ph.D., Economics, Iowa State University (1965)
J.D., University of Iowa (1961) 
B.S., Iowa State University (1955)

Bloomberg BNA Tax Management Portfolios:
829 T.M., The Family-Owned Business Deduction — Section 2057 (co-author)
608 T.M., Reporting Farm Income (author)