Congress’ recent passage of legislation making permanent or extending several tax provisions important to agriculture is a great example of how the groundwork farmers and ranchers have laid all year can pay off. Over the past 12-plus months they have been explaining to their lawmakers how tax provisions like section 179 small business expense and bonus depreciation make the difficult business of running a farm more manageable.
 
In the past, Congress had approved one- or two-year extensions—sometimes retroactively—of these critical provisions. Though that was helpful, not knowing from one year to next whether key small business tax provisions would be available made it extremely challenging for farmers and ranchers to make the best decisions about equipment purchases and other farm and ranch improvements and investments.

Focus on Ag column