WASHINGTON – By 400-20, the U.S. House on Wednesday passed legislation by Rep. Vern Buchanan of Sarasota, Florida, that would give tax breaks to citrus grove investors for replacing plants damaged by “citrus greening,” an incurable bacterial disease that has swept through nearly all of Florida’s commercial citrus groves.
The “Emergency Citrus Disease Response Act,” H.R. 3957, would amend the tax code to allow minority citrus grove investors – who don’t materially participate in the business – to deduct the costs of replanting crops damaged by disease in the same year that the costs are incurred.
Current law allows only minority investors who take part in planting and related activities to immediately deduct the costs of replacing damaged crops rather than spreading them out over several years.
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