WASHINGTON, D.C. — Even as agriculture groups applauded U.S. Senate approval of tax extenders popular with farms and small businesses, they called on Congress to enact the tax breaks for longer than just 2014.

The Senate approved language on Dec. 16 that renewed expired tax provisions for 2014, including the Section 179 expensing and bonus depreciation provisions popular with farmers.

The Section 179 provision allows businesses spending $2 million or less on equipment to deduct up to $500,000 in the year of purchase. The approved bonus depreciation allows 50 percent depreciation for equipment purchased and placed into service for 2014.

Farm groups continued the call to make such provisions more permanent. “These aren’t solutions that benefit farmers in some years and not in others; we need them every year on every farm,” said Wade Cowan, American Soybean Assoc. president. “So we encourage both chambers of Congress to come together and find a solution that extends these beneficial provisions for the long term. What we need is certainty in the tax code, not a guessing game.”

The legislation also included tax credits for cellulosic ethanol, biodiesel and E85 infrastructure (gas pump) changes. “These incentives can help to level the playing field in a tax code that is overwhelmingly tilted toward incumbent fuels and established oil extraction technologies,” said Bob Dinneen, president and CEO, Renewable Fuels Assoc.

But he also noted the extension is for one year. “Once signed into law, the tax credits will be retroactively applied to 2014 and are only applicable until the end of the month. This once again forces investors and cellulosic ethanol producers to hope for the best but prepare for the worst.”

The bill also extended the wind energy production tax credit for one year. But Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), a wind energy champion, said it could have been more.

“House and Senate negotiators were closing in on an agreement that would have provided a two-year extension for most provisions and would have been good for wind energy production, with a multiyear extension,” he said.

The wind energy tax credit remains among the most controversial – and expensive – of what has become an annual round of tax extenders.

Another part of the tax extenders package has infrastructure implications for agriculture. The barge diesel fuel user fee will increase from 20 to 29 cents per gallon. The fees are used for new construction and rehabilitation of the inland waterways system.

“Additional money flowing to priority navigation projects could result in earlier completion and delivery of more than $82 billion in related economic activity for the nation over 20 years,” said Michael J. Toohey, president/CEO of Waterways Council, Inc., a group supporting the increase.