For the 2010 tax year, some individuals — including self-employed farmers — are able to deduct health insurance premiums from net income subject to the self-employment tax.

To answer questions that are cropping up about the deduction, the national Rural Tax Education project has issued an online fact sheet at http://www.ruraltax.org/files/uploads/SE health insurance deduction for SE tax (RTE 2011-25).pdf.

The information comes from two Cooperative Extension educators, North Carolina State University’s Guido van der Hoeven  and Cornell University’s Joseph A. Bennett. They say the deduction is easy to miss, so they provide instructions as well as an example illustrating how to report and benefit from the deduction.