My Letter to Barron's on MLPs, March 11

To the Editor:
I was disappointed in the cover story on "The New MLP Landscape" (Feb. 25) because it failed to discuss the most fundamental risk facing the sector. Practically, the sole reason that master limited partnerships exist is to game the tax code. Thus, any serious policy discussion involving business tax reform would have to include the role of MLPs, real-estate investment trusts, and large-scale limited liability corporations and partnerships. If corporate tax rates are to be lowered as they should be, the lost revenue will have to made up from somewhere.

Prudent MLP investors should keep a close eye on the congressional tax-writing committees.