Dive Brief:

• Equipment dealers and the contractors who buy from them would mostly be hurt by proposed changes to the tax law in a U.S. Senate proposal, Associated Equipment Dealers argues.
• The group is warning its members that the law would simplify the tax code in some ways and raise more money, but backers are talking only about using increased revenue to bring down the corporate tax rates.
• The group notes that two-thirds of its members are pass-through companies whose owners pay taxes at individual rates, and many contractors and home builders are in the same situation.

Dive Insight:

A particular sore point in the dealers' argument is a proposal to eliminate last-in, first-out (LIFO) accounting, which the association says about two in five equipment dealers use. That change would leave them with $600 million in reserves on which they would suddenly owe $200 million in retroactive taxes, the argument goes. LIFO accounting has been used for almost 100 years, and the association says it is not hearing any plausible arguments for that change.