House Ag Committee examines impacts of tax code on agriculture industry

The House Agriculture Committee held a hearing on Wednesday to examine how the tax code impacts agricultural producers. Members of the committee heard from a panel of Members of Congress—including Rep. Kristi Noem South Dakota, and Rep. Lynn Jenkins, Kansas,—from the House Committee on Ways and Means, the committee charged with crafting our nation’s tax code. The committee also heard from a diverse panel of witnesses including agricultural and tax professionals.
“Both the ranking member and I are CPAs, and many of our colleagues in Congress are small business owners in their own right,” said Agriculture Committee Chairman K. Michael Conaway. “Few business sectors in America are subject to as many unknowns as farming and ranching. With the upcoming potential for tax reform, it is important to highlight the unique challenges of the agricultural industry and explore opportunities within the tax code to better support a vibrant farm sector.
“As with tax reform changes from years past, the devil is in the details. Providing for a simpler, fairer tax code means that many parts of the tax code may have to change, but these individual proposals cannot be evaluated in a vacuum. I look forward to working with Chairman Brady and his colleagues on the Ways and Means Committee as they craft a tax reform package, and I urge all of my colleagues to reserve judgment until they’ve had an opportunity to evaluate a complete package.”
Written testimony provided by the witnesses from the hearing is linked below. Click here for more information, including Chairman Conaway’s opening statement  and the archived webcast.
Witness List:
Panel I
Ms. Patricia Wolff, senior director, Congressional Affairs, American Farm Bureau Federation, Washington, DC
Mr. Doug Claussen, CPA, principal, KCoe Isom, LLP, Cambridge, Nebraska
Mr. Chris Hesse, CPA, principal, CliftonLarsonAllen, LLP, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Mr. Guido van der Hoeven, Extension specialist/senior lecturer, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Raleigh, North Carolina
Dr. James M. Williamson, economist, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, Washington, DC