Bankruptcy is designed to accomplish two objectives — (1) assure fair and equitable treatment of the unsecured creditors (the secured creditors are entitled to payment up to the value of their collateral and beyond that are unsecured creditors) and (2) provide a "fresh start" to the debtor. The concept of abandonment now poses a collision of those two objectives.

The IRS is reviewing whether agribusiness firms are required to file Form 1099B information returns with the IRS (and with copies to the taxpayer) on purchases of generic commodity certificates from farmers and contracts with farmers for future delivery of grain. The issue is of substantial importance to country elevators and other grain, feed and processing firms.