G.O.P. Rushed to Pass Tax Overhaul. Now It May Need to Be Altered.<br />The conservative Tax Foundation said that the flaw should be addressed quickly, saying that,<br />if left in place, “the deduction would allow some farmers to effectively become tax-exempt.”<br />Leaders of independent grain companies from Oklahoma, Minnesota and South Dakota traveled to Washington in late February to make their case to lawmakers<br />that a fix was urgently needed, warning that businesses like theirs could collapse or be sold.<br />“We will be much more receptive to selling our business if this happens,” said Todd Lafferty, co-chief executive of Wheeler Brothers<br />Grain Company in Watonga, Okla. “It’s going to result in further consolidation of the industry, but that’s not what we want to do.”<br />Mr. Lafferty, a Republican, said he was excited about the new tax legislation until he heard about the provision.<br />Companies and trade groups are pushing the Treasury Department and Congress to fix the law’s consequences, some intended and some not, including provisions<br />that disadvantage certain farmers, hurt restaurateurs and retailers and could balloon the tax bills of large multinational corporations.<br />“We’re not just going to sit down and fix the things they did badly because they did it in the dead of night with lobbyists at the table.”<br />A second, much larger group of issues are those that need Treasury clarification — areas of the law<br />that companies say could be construed in any number of ways, with vastly differing consequences for tax liabilities.<br />At the same event, an Eli Lilly official said the provisions discouraged companies from holding intellectual property in the United States, counter to the intent of Congress,<br />because they forced those companies to reimburse foreign affiliates doing work outside the country.
