The comment period for the implementing rule on one of the biggest, most controversial and complex ag provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) closed today. That is the new Section 199A, which impacts cooperatives and their patrons. This provision allows for a 20 percent deduction from income earned by pass-through businesses. These are defined as small and medium-sized businesses organized as sole proprietorships, partnerships, and S corporations that pass their business income through the firm’s activities to the entrepreneur who owns the entity. That income is then subject to the personal tax rate. Approximately 93 percent of all U.S. farms are pass-through business tax filers. This new provision also includes a 20 perc...
From WPI Consulting
Illuminating the value of technical research
On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.