limited master partnership

As investors prepare for president elect Obama to take office, many are anticipating any policy changes or modifications he may implement.  Unfortunately, this period of uncertainty has spawned a few rumors that have misled the investing public.  One of these rumors is the idea that Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs) will be taxed in the same manner as C corporations moving forward.

Luckily, according to the National Association of Publicly Traded Partnerships this is not the case.  Per the NAPTP:

…a memo circulated by an investment firm that was based on the Tax Policy Center analysis described below but like other summaries we have seen, neglected to include the all-important word “financial”.   The investment firm has admitted that this was an error.   Therefore, it continues to be true that the only matter involving PTPs on which the President-elect has taken a public position is his cosponsorship of legislation–which has gone nowhere–to tax PTPs which are investment advisors as corporations. We have no reason to believe that he has taken any position with regard to other PTPs.

So, looks like we’re in the clear for now.  The only publicly traded partnerships Obama has considered are “financial” in nature.  In my opinion, it just doesn’t make sense to go after MLPs.  It is in the best interest of the nation to promote building and maintaining quality energy infrastructure - the tax benefits of master limited partnerships encourage this.