3-9 NWR Tax Reform

This is your Northwest report for Thursday, March 9, I'm David Sparks and tax reform is said to be a goal on Capitol Hill in the 115th Congress and how that shakes out will be important for agriculture. Here is John Doggett, Executive Vice Pres. for the National Corn Growers Association. " The challenges are we will have a simpler code, reduced rates and we will have an opportunity to address the deficit." But he says the devil is in the details." There has been some discussion about dropping the rates down to 10% because you don't have any deductions. If you can't deduct your interest expense, if you can't deduct your equipment expense, your fuel expense, your seed expense and they take 10% off the gross, no matter whether you are making any money or not, that's a problem." Talk of a border adjustability tax has been a key discussion point in the tax reform conversation. House speaker Paul Ryan is pushing the idea and the White House has thrown differing signals on the matter. Doggett says many Senate Republicans are not on board with the idea which would add a 20% tax on goods imported into the United States. Doggett says that includes things like pickups and farm equipment, expensive purchases frequently made by farming operations.

Elsewhere, and continuing to follow the avian influenza at a Tennessee farm, The disease is "a different virus and is genetically distinct" from China's H7N9 bird-flu strain that has sickened poultry and infected humans in Asia. That bit of information coming from a statement made byU.S. Department of Agriculture.