[fullwidth background_color=”” background_image=”” background_parallax=”none” enable_mobile=”no” parallax_speed=”0.3″ background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” video_url=”” video_aspect_ratio=”16:9″ video_webm=”” video_mp4=”” video_ogv=”” video_preview_image=”” overlay_color=”” overlay_opacity=”0.5″ video_mute=”yes” video_loop=”yes” fade=”no” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding_top=”20″ padding_bottom=”20″ padding_left=”0″ padding_right=”0″ hundred_percent=”no” equal_height_columns=”no” hide_on_mobile=”no” menu_anchor=”” class=”” id=””][title size=”1″ content_align=”left” style_type=”underline solid” sep_color=”#000000″ margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” class=”” id=””]End of year tax bill changes COOL, 179 tax breaks[/title][fusion_text]Monday, December 21st 2015
The country-of-origin labeling rules for beef and pork are about to become history, while a lucrative but expired tax break for farmers is about to become permanent under the newly enacted spending and tax legislation. The legislation also will give the beleaguered cotton industry some relief from government payment limits and reinstate tax subsidies for biofuels and wind power. Expired tax incentives that subsidize biodiesel, cellulosic ethanol and biofuel pumps are restored and extended through 2016. Missing from the bill is any resolution to the fight over labeling biotech foods or a reauthorization of school nutrition programs. The spending and tax legislation combined an omnibus spending bill that will fund the government through Sept. 30 and a sweeping tax package that extends dozens of lapsed tax incentives that are widely used by businesses and individuals. The tax breaks include the enhanced Section 179 expensing allowance used by farms to offset the cost of tractors, combines and other new equipment. The bill would permanently allow a business to expense up to $500,000 – up from a limit of $25,000 – and the $500,000 limit would be indexed for inflation. A bonus depreciation provision is extended at 50 percent for property placed in service during 2015, 2016 and 2017, and then lowered to 40 percent in 2018 and 30 percent in 2019. The House approved the spending measure, 316-113, Friday morning and then combined the bill with the tax package that representatives had approved on Thursday. The two bills were combined and then sent to the Senate, where the consolidated bill was quickly approved, 65-33. President Obama signed the legislation into law hours later. The repeal of the country-of-origin labeling law was designed to avert more than $1 billion in retaliatory tariffs that the World Trade Organization authorized Canada and Mexico to levy against a variety of U.S. products because of COOL requirements. The COOL rules were left intact for poultry, a small win for defenders of the law, which was enacted as part of the 2002 farm bill. Democrats successfully fought off Republican attempts to block implementation of the Obama administration’s “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) rule, which re-defines the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act, and to delay penalties for farmers who are facing new conservation compliance provisions in order obtain crop insurance. Some Senate Democrats also blocked Congress from acting on the GMO issue. The industry unsuccessfully lobbied to the final hours to get congressional leaders to include in the omnibus a two-year delay in state biotech labeling laws – the first such rule takes effect in Vermont in July. Farm groups expressed relief at getting the Section 179 and bonus depreciation provisions. They were among the most popular of dozens of tax incentives that Congress has been extending a year or two at a time. They were restored for 2014 only last December and then allowed to lapse again.
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