WASHINGTON, August 3, 2012- The Senate Finance Committee included several biofuel tax credit provisions in its tax extender package passed Thursday. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., released a summary of the Family and Business Tax Cut Certainty Act of 2012, a package that includes more than $205 billion in tax cut extensions passed by a 19-5 vote in the Senate Finance Committee.
The legislation extends dozens of tax-cuts known as “extenders” that have expired or are scheduled to expire at the end of this year. Included in these extenders are the Cellulosic Biofuels Producer Tax Credit, tax incentives for biodiesel and renewable diesel, and the Cellulosic Biofuels Bonus Depreciation. The Senate is expected to consider the bill next month.
The package extends the Cellulosic Biofuels Producer Tax Credit for one year so facilities producing cellulosic biofuel can claim a $1 per gallon production tax credit. The proposal also expands the definition of qualified cellulosic biofuel production to include algae-based fuel. Based on preliminary estimates, a one-year extension of this proposal is estimated to cost $59 million over ten years, according to Baucus’s summary.
The bill extends for two years, through 2013, the expired $1 per gallon tax credit for biodiesel, as well as the small agri-biodiesel producer credit of 10 cents per gallon. The estimated $2 billion bill over ten years also extends the $1 per gallon tax credit for diesel fuel created from biomass through 2013.
It also extends the cellulosic biofuels bonus depreciation, under which facilities producing cellulosic biofuel can expense 50 percent of their eligible capital costs in the first year for facilities placed-in-service before the end of 2013. The proposal also expands the definition of qualified cellulosic biofuel production to include algae-based fuel. Based on preliminary estimates, a one-year extension of this proposal is estimated to cost less than $500,000 over ten years, according to Baucus’s summary.
#30
For more news, go to www.agri-pulse.com