Dear Neighbor,
A key point warrants revisiting since passage of a bill last week that, among other things, repealed three taxes enacted just last year.
One of the taxes we repealed pertains to equipment repairs. This proved to be very costly to the ag. industry, where farmers can incur large repair bills on costly machinery. The added costs from that tax were burdensome, especially when you consider 2013 was a down year for farmers (reports show income fell 78 percent from 2012).
I advocated making the equipment repair tax repeal retroactive, so anyone who had saved receipts from repairs could be reimbursed. Disappointingly, the repeal is only active into the future. It is good this tax is off the books, but there is enough money remaining in our state’s projected surplus that we could have made it retroactive. It would have been the right thing to do.
One other note regarding the tax bill: Several measures which match Minnesota’s tax code with federal provisions were included. State officials recommend people who have not filed their taxes wait at least until April 3 to do so in order to allow for the updates to be put in place. As I noted last week, three scenarios will take place for those who already filed but want to capitalize on deductions now available. In case you missed it:
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The Revenue Dept. will fix returns for citizens and send a letter to them outlining the updates they made.
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Revenue will ask citizens to provide more information so the department can fix returns.
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Revenue will notify citizens their returns cannot be fixed and amended versions will need to be filed.
IRRIGATION PERMIT IMPROVEMENT WORK
The Environment, Natural Resources, and Ag. Finance committee finalized its major policy bill during an evening session this past week. One item that caused a considerable amount of discussion concerned language pertaining to irrigation well permits and trout streams. Current language says permits may be denied if they could POTENTIALLY have an impact on the stream. The DNR, the agency charged with overseeing the well-permitting process in Minnesota, agreed to a change in wording that removes the word "potential." This change should make it easier for the agency to determine if a permit actually would have an impact on stream flow instead of relying on modeling.
MNSURE DEADLINE IS MONDAY
Monday is the deadline for Minnesotans to obtain for health insurance before facing fines. The current penalty for a family of four is at least $285 for failure to sign up. The penalty will increase to $695 per person in 2016. Enrollment in commercial plans continues to fall far short of projections we received as this program advanced to enactment last year. This is concerning because it jeopardizes the program’s long-term stability and could lead to Minnesotans having to pay more for this program.
Sincerely,
Paul