COOPERATIVE AGRICULTURE IN FLORIDA


members, appropriate measures should be taken by an
association to insure that non members have notice of
the provisions and deal with the association in reliance
upon them.
 Federal tax law now provides that cooperatives must
send a statement at the end of each fiscal year to all
patrons who are refunded or allocated $100 or more in
any form, notifying them of the amounts credited to
them on the books, and/or returned to them in any other
manner. It is preferable if this type statement can be
sent to all patrons regardless of the amount involved.

 Such mandatory obligations to account are important
from the standpoint of exemption from the payment of
federal income taxes. They draw a sharp fundamental
and vivid distinction between a cooperative and an or-
dinary business corporation. An ordmary business cor-
poration is naturally and properly concerned with the
selling of goods to its customers at a profit and then dis-
tributmng the profit to other persons as dividends on their
stock. This is the direct opposite of true cooperation.

 It has been said that no man may make a profit by
dealing with himself, and it is believed that no corpora-
tion, cooperative or otherwise, may make a profit in
transactions in which it is under a contractual obligation
to account for and return to its customers or patrons in
some form all amounts received over operating and
maintenance costs and expenses.

 If a cooperative association is to be a true coopera-
tive, it must strictly account to each of its patrons, mem-
bers and non members ahke, for all amounts which the
association received on account of their business, over
the operating and maintenance costs and expenses of the
association. It should account in the form of cash or
certificates of some kind, or in the form of book credits.
This basic difference between a cooperative association
and a noncooperative business enterprise should be care-