SSR 61-28. SOIL BANK PAYMENTS

A owned and operated a farm on which he had produced ten acres of cotton

and forty acres of grain in 1957. In 1958 the ten acres of cotton land

were put into the soil bank conservation reserve program and in that year

A received conservation reserve payments for the land so retired.

The question is whether the conservation reserve payments received by A

are includible in computing his net earnings from self-employment for

social security purposes.

Payments received by a farm operator for land withdrawn from production

and placed in the conservation reserve program under the Federal Soil Bank

Act enacted in 1956 and amended in 1958, are includible in computing net

earnings from self-employment. In the present case, A was the operator of

his farm in 1958 when he withdrew ten acres of land from cultivation and

placed them in the conservation reserve program. Accordingly, it is held that the conservation reserve payments received by A in 1958

are includible in computing his "net earnings from self-employment" for

social security purposes.