World Perspectives

Tax Reform Update

Last Thursday was a big day for tax reform proposals in Congress. The House Ways and Means Committee passed its Tax Cuts and Jobs Act by a vote of 24-16 that day, and the Senate Finance Committee unveiled its version of tax reform. However, there are some key differences between the two on some big-ticket, politically important items. The Senate plan proposes seven marginal tax brackets of 10, 12, 22.5, 25, 32.5, 35 and 38.5 percent. The top rate would start for single taxpayers with taxable income of more than $500,000 and for married taxpayers jointly filing with taxable income over $1 million. In contrast, the House bill has four marginal tax rates. The Senate bill would eliminate the deduction for state and local taxes entirely, but t...

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Please note that Ag Perspectives will not be published tomorrow, Friday, 4 July in observance of the Fourth of July holiday in the U.S. We will resume our normal report schedule on Monday 7 July...

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Summary of Futures

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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.

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