A dial rather than a switch: it taxes part of this year's farm or fishing profit at the rates of the three prior years, and you elect how much. It moves income tax only — self-employment tax is figured on Schedule SE and does not change.

Everything on this site that lands here

Each article declares the sheet its number ends up on, so this list is the writing itself rather than a summary of it.

ReadWhere it lands
You choose how much farm income to average drawing on the Schedule F profit

The official page

Everything here is written from the IRS's own material, and the place to check it is Schedule J on irs.gov. Figures and rules change; the source is what settles them.

This is educational material, not tax advice. Your own situation may turn on facts this page does not know about.