Proposed Tax Bill Ups Ante For Florida Citrus Growers Willing To Re-Plant

Posted by Paul Rusnak|November 9, 2015

There is a ray of hope shining for the battle-weary Florida citrus industry thanks to the recent introduction of a measure that would provide growers with an incentive to plant more trees and bolster the struggling sector.

H.R. 3957 (The Emergency Citrus Disease Response Act), driven by U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-16), allows growers to immediately expense the cost of planting new citrus instead of the standard 14-year depreciation period under the current IRS rules. The tweak to the IRS code is designed to increase slumping production. It would be available for 10 years.

Florida Citrus Mutual is applauding the tax measure.

“By some estimates, our industry needs to put more than 20 million trees in the ground over the next 10 years to support existing infrastructure and get our production back to where it was before HLB,” said Mike Sparks, executive VP/CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual. “Rep. Buchanan’s bill will help eliminate some of the financial risk growers are weighing when they decide whether to re-plant. Growers want to farm and this measure will tip the scales and get them back in the game even in this tough environment.”

Co-sponsors of the bill include Reps. Bilirakis, Castor, Crenshaw, Curbelo, Diaz-Balart, Hastings, Jolly, Murphy, Rooney, Ross, Wasserman-Schultz, and Yoho.