Tax Provision Extensions

American Farm Bureau tax policy specialist Pat Wolff says congressional action is needed now to re-instate a list of tax provisions important to farmers and ranchers that expired at the end of last year.

Wolff: We're already six months into the new year, and both the House and the Senate are on the slow path to enactment of the legislation we need to extend these provisions.

The House Ways and Means Committee marked up legislation dealing with bonus depreciation, the deduction for conservation easements and the deduction for charitable contributions of food.

Wolff: Bonus depreciation helps with cash flow, it allows farmers to manage their tax liabilities, and it makes it easier for farmers to buy things they need to upgrade their operations and replace their equipment.

While the House wants to make the expired provisions a permanent part of the tax code, Wolff says the Senate only wants to extend them for two years.

Wolff: It's just really difficult to deal with a tax code that changes every year or every two years, but the Senate is dug in on their two-year extension, and how they're going to figure it out, no one knows. They need to get together and work out the differences so that we can have these important tax provisions now rather than later.

That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.