USD Partners (USDP) Risk Analysis

We are currently a "smaller reporting company," meaning that we are not an investment company, an asset-backed issuer, or a majority-owned subsidiary of a parent company that is not a smaller reporting company and have a public float of less than $250 million as of the end of the second fiscal quarter. "Smaller reporting companies" are able to provide simplified executive compensation disclosures in their filings, and have certain other scaled disclosure obligations in their SEC filings, including, among other things, being required to provide only two years of audited financial statements in annual reports. The scaled disclosures we provide in our SEC filings due to our status as a "smaller reporting company" may make it harder for investors to analyze our results of operations and financial prospects. If some investors find our common units to be less attractive as a result of the scaled disclosures, there also may be a less active trading market for our common units and our trading price may be more volatile.

USD indirectly owns a 42.9% limited partner interest and indirectly owns and controls our general partner, which owns a 1.7% general partner interest in us. Although our general partner has a duty to manage us in a manner that is not adverse to the best interests of our partnership and our unitholders, the directors and officers of our general partner also have a duty to manage our general partner in a manner that is not adverse to the best interests of its owner, USD. Conflicts of interest may arise between USD and its affiliates, including our general partner, on the one hand, and us and our unitholders, on the other hand. In resolving these conflicts, the general partner may favor its own interests and the interests of its affiliates, including USD, over the interests of our common unitholders. These conflicts include, among others, the following situations: - neither our Second Amended and Restated Agreement of Limited Partnership of USD Partners LP, or our partnership agreement, nor any other agreement requires USD to pursue a business strategy that favors us, and the directors and officers of USD have a fiduciary duty to make these decisions in the best interests of the members of USD. USD may choose to shift the focus of its investment and growth to areas not served by our assets;- USD may be constrained by the terms of its debt instruments, if any, from taking actions, or refraining from taking actions, that may be in our best interests;- our partnership agreement replaces the fiduciary duties that would otherwise be owed by our general partner with contractual standards governing its duties, limiting our general partner's liabilities and restricting the remedies available to our unitholders for actions that, without the limitations, might constitute breaches of fiduciary duty;- except in limited circumstances, our general partner has the power and authority to conduct our business without unitholder approval;- our general partner will determine the amount and timing of asset purchases and sales, borrowings, issuance of additional partnership securities and the creation, reduction or increase of cash reserves, each of which can affect the amount of cash that is distributed to our unitholders;- our general partner will determine the amount and timing of many of our cash expenditures and whether a cash expenditure is classified as an expansion capital expenditure, which would not reduce operating surplus, or a maintenance capital expenditure, which would reduce our operating surplus. This determination can affect the amount of cash that is distributed to our unitholders and to our general partner, the amount of adjusted operating surplus generated in any given period, and the ability of the subordinated units to convert into common units;- our general partner will determine which costs incurred by it are reimbursable by us;- our general partner may cause us to borrow funds in order to permit the payment of cash distributions, even if the purpose or effect of the borrowing is to make a distribution on the subordinated units, to make incentive distributions, or to satisfy the conditions required to convert subordinated units to common units;- our partnership agreement permits us to classify up to $18.5 million as operating surplus, even if it is generated from asset sales, non-working capital borrowings or other sources that would otherwise constitute capital surplus. This cash may be used to fund distributions on our subordinated units or to our general partner in respect of the general partner interest or the incentive distribution rights;- our partnership agreement does not restrict our general partner from causing us to pay it or its affiliates for any services rendered to us or entering into additional contractual arrangements with any of these entities on our behalf;- our general partner intends to limit its liability regarding our contractual and other obligations;- our general partner may exercise its right to call and purchase all of the common units not owned by it and its affiliates if it and its affiliates own more than 80.0% of the common units;- our general partner controls the enforcement of obligations owed to us by our general partner and its affiliates;- our general partner decides whether to retain separate counsel, accountants or others to perform services for us; and - our general partner may elect to cause us to issue common units to it in connection with a resetting of the target distribution levels related to our general partner's incentive distribution rights without the approval of the conflicts committee of the board of directors of our general partner, which we refer to as our conflicts committee, or our unitholders. This election may result in lower distributions to our common unitholders in certain situations. Under the terms of our partnership agreement, the doctrine of corporate opportunity, or any analogous doctrine, does not apply to our general partner or any of its affiliates, including its executive officers, directors and owners. Any such person or entity that becomes aware of a potential transaction, agreement, arrangement or other matter that may be an opportunity for us will not have any duty to communicate or offer such opportunity to us. Any such person or entity will not be liable to us or to any limited partner for breach of any fiduciary duty or other duty by reason of the fact that such person or entity pursues or acquires such opportunity for itself, directs such opportunity to another person or entity or does not communicate such opportunity or information to us. This may create actual and potential conflicts of interest between us and affiliates of our general partner and result in less than favorable treatment of us and our unitholders. Please refer to the discussion under Item 13. Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence regarding conflicts of interests and fiduciary duties of our general partner.

Energy Capital Partners currently has the right to appoint three of seven members of USD's board of directors and three of nine members of our general partner's board of directors and may in the future have the right to appoint the majority of USD's board of directors if it invests a specified amount in USD, or certain other conditions are met. For so long as Energy Capital Partners is able to appoint more than one member to USD's board of directors, USD will not, and will not permit its subsidiaries, including us and our general partner, to take or agree to take certain actions without the affirmative vote of Energy Capital Partners, including, among others, any acquisitions or dispositions and any issuances of additional equity interests in us. Energy Capital Partners may make these decisions free of any duty to us and our unitholders. Additionally, members of our general partner's board of directors appointed by Energy Capital Partners, if any, must approve any distributions made by us, any incurrence of debt by us and the approval, modification or revocation of our budget. As a result, Energy Capital Partners is able to significantly influence the management and affairs of USD and our general partner, including the amount of distributions we make, if any, our policies and operations, the appointment of management, future issuances of securities, amendments to our organizational documents and the entering into of extraordinary transactions. The interests of Energy Capital Partners may not in all cases be aligned with the interests of our common unitholders and, in certain situations, they have no duty to us or our unitholders. Energy Capital Partners may have an interest in pursuing acquisitions, divestitures and other transactions that, in its judgment, could enhance its equity investment, even though such transactions might involve risks to our common unitholders, or Energy Capital Partners may have an interest in not pursuing transactions that would otherwise benefit us. For example, Energy Capital Partners could influence us to make acquisitions, investments and capital expenditures that increase our indebtedness or to sell revenue-generating assets or to not make such acquisitions, investments or capital expenditures. In addition, Energy Capital Partners may have different tax considerations that could influence its position, including regarding whether and when to dispose of assets and whether and when to incur new or refinance existing indebtedness. In addition, the structuring of future transactions by our general partner may take into consideration these tax or other considerations even where no similar benefit would accrue to our common unitholders or us. Energy Capital Partners may make the decisions to approve any acquisition or disposition by us free of any duty to us and our unitholders. Energy Capital Partners' influence on USD and our general partner may have the effect of delaying, preventing or deterring a change of control of our company. Energy Capital Partners and its affiliates and affiliated funds are in the business of making investments in companies in the energy industry and may from time to time acquire and hold interests in businesses that compete directly or indirectly with us. USD's limited liability company agreement provides that Energy Capital Partners shall not have any duty to refrain from engaging directly or indirectly in the same or similar business activities or lines of business as us or any of our subsidiaries, and that in the event that Energy Capital Partners acquires knowledge of a potential transaction or matter which may be a corporate opportunity for itself and us or any of our subsidiaries, neither we nor any of our subsidiaries shall, to the fullest extent permitted by law, have any expectancy in such corporate opportunity, and Energy Capital Partners shall not, to the fullest extent permitted by law, have any duty to communicate or offer such corporate opportunity to us or any of our subsidiaries and may pursue or acquire such corporate opportunity for itself or direct such corporate opportunity to another person. Energy Capital Partners and its affiliates may also pursue acquisition opportunities that are complementary to our business and, as a result, those acquisition opportunities may not be available to us. Please refer to the discussion under Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance-Special Approval Rights of Energy Capital Partners regarding the rights of Energy Capital Partners. Energy Capital Partners, upon giving written notice, shall have the right to compel USD to effect the total sale of Energy Capital Partners' interests in USD, which we refer to as an ECP Exit. Such a sale could include an acquisition by the remaining owners of USD of Energy Capital Partners' interests in USD or an initial public offering of USD. If the ECP Exit has not been completed within 180 days of the date USD receives notice of Energy Capital Partners' desire to sell, Energy Capital Partners shall have the right to compel USD to effect a total sale of USD pursuant to an auction process on terms and conditions determined by, and in a process managed by, the members of USD's board of directors that are appointed by Energy Capital Partners, provided that certain conditions in connection with the sale are met.

The board of directors of our general partner has adopted a cash distribution policy pursuant to which we intend to distribute quarterly at least $0.2875 per unit on all of our units to the extent we have sufficient cash after the establishment of cash reserves and the payment of our expenses, including payments to our general partner and its affiliates. However, the board may change such policy at any time at its discretion. Additionally, members of our general partner's board of directors appointed by Energy Capital Partners, if any, must approve any distributions made by us. Our partnership agreement does not require us to pay distributions at all and our general partner's board of directors has broad discretion in setting the amount of cash reserves each quarter. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the permanence of our cash distribution policy in making an investment decision. Any modification or revocation of our cash distribution policy could substantially reduce or eliminate the amounts of distributions to our unitholders. The amount of distributions we make and the decision to make any distribution is determined by the board of directors of our general partner as well as the members of our general partner's board of directors appointed by Energy Capital Partners, whose interests may differ from those of our common unitholders. Our general partner has limited duties to our unitholders, which may permit it to favor its own interests or the interests of our sponsor or its affiliates to the detriment of our common unitholders.

Our partnership agreement contains provisions that eliminate the fiduciary standards to which our general partner would otherwise be held by state fiduciary duty law and replaces those duties with several different contractual standards. For example, our partnership agreement permits our general partner to make a number of decisions in its individual capacity, as opposed to in its capacity as our general partner, free of any duties to us and our unitholders. This provision entitles our general partner to consider only the interests and factors that it desires and relieves it of any duty or obligation to give any consideration to any interest of, or factors affecting, us, our affiliates or our limited partners. By purchasing a common unit, a unitholder is treated as having consented to the provisions in our partnership agreement, including the provisions discussed above. Please refer to the discussion under Item 13. Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence regarding conflicts of interests and fiduciary duties of our general partner.

Our partnership agreement contains provisions that restrict the remedies available to unitholders for actions taken by our general partner that might otherwise constitute breaches of fiduciary duty under state fiduciary duty law. For example, our partnership agreement: - provides that whenever our general partner makes a determination or takes, or declines to take, any other action in its capacity as our general partner, our general partner is required to make such determination, or take or decline to take such other action, in good faith and will not be subject to any higher standard imposed by our partnership agreement, Delaware law, or any other law, rule or regulation, or at equity;- provides that our general partner and its officers and directors will not be liable for monetary damages to us or our limited partners resulting from any act or omission unless there has been a final and non-appealable judgment entered by a court of competent jurisdiction determining that our general partner or its officers and directors, as the case may be, acted in bad faith or engaged in fraud or willful misconduct or, in the case of a criminal matter, acted with knowledge that the conduct was criminal; and - provides that our general partner will not be in breach of its obligations under our partnership agreement or its fiduciary duties to us or our limited partners if a transaction with an affiliate or the resolution of a conflict of interest is approved in accordance with, or otherwise meets the standards set forth in, our partnership agreement. In connection with a situation involving a transaction with an affiliate or a conflict of interest, our partnership agreement provides that any determination by our general partner must be made in good faith, and that our conflicts committee and the board of directors of our general partner are entitled to a presumption that they acted in good faith. In any proceeding brought by or on behalf of any limited partner of the partnership, the person bringing or prosecuting such proceeding will have the burden of overcoming such presumption. Please refer to the discussion under Item 13. Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence regarding conflicts of interests and fiduciary duties of our general partner.

In order to avoid (1) any material adverse effect on the maximum applicable rates that can be charged to customers by our subsidiaries on assets that are subject to rate regulation by the FERC or analogous regulatory body, and (2) any substantial risk of cancellation or forfeiture of any property, including any governmental permit, endorsement or other authorization, in which we have an interest, we have adopted certain requirements regarding those investors who may own our common units. Citizenship eligible holders are individuals or entities whose nationality, citizenship or other related status does not create a substantial risk of cancellation or forfeiture of any property, including any governmental permit, endorsement or authorization, in which we have an interest, and will generally include individuals and entities who are U.S. citizens. Rate eligible holders are individuals or entities subject to U.S. federal income taxation on the income generated by us or entities not subject to U.S. federal income taxation on the income generated by us, so long as all of the entity's owners are subject to such taxation. If you are not a person who meets the requirements to be a citizenship eligible holder and a rate eligible holder, you run the risk of having your units redeemed by us at the market price as of the date three days before the date the notice of redemption is mailed. The redemption price will be paid in cash or by delivery of a promissory note, as determined by our general partner. In addition, if you are not a person who meets the requirements to be a citizenship eligible holder, you will not be entitled to voting rights.

Unlike the holders of common stock in a corporation, unitholders have only limited voting rights on matters affecting our business and, therefore, limited ability to influence management's decisions regarding our business. Unitholders do not elect our general partner or the board of directors of our general partner and have no right to elect our general partner or the board of directors of our general partner on an annual or other continuing basis. The board of directors of our general partner is chosen by the members of our general partner, which is indirectly owned by USD. Furthermore, if the unitholders are dissatisfied with the performance of our general partner, they will have little ability to remove our general partner. As a result of these limitations, the price at which our common units trade could be diminished because of the absence or reduction of a takeover premium in the trading price. The unitholders are unable initially to remove our general partner without its consent because our general partner and its affiliates own sufficient units to prevent its removal. The vote of the holders of at least 66 2/3% of all outstanding units voting together as a single class is required to remove our general partner. At December 31, 2019, our general partner and its affiliates own 42.9% of the limited partnership interests entitled to vote in this matter (excluding general partner units and without consideration of any common units held by our officers, directors, employees and certain other persons affiliated with us). Also, if our general partner is removed without cause during the time any subordinated units are outstanding and the subordinated units held by our general partner and its affiliates are not voted in favor of that removal, all remaining subordinated units will automatically be converted into common units, and any existing arrearages on the common units will be extinguished. A removal of our general partner under these circumstances would adversely affect the common units by prematurely eliminating their distribution and liquidation preference over the subordinated units, which would otherwise have continued until we had met certain distribution and performance tests. "Cause" is narrowly defined under our partnership agreement to mean that a court of competent jurisdiction has entered a final, non-appealable judgment finding the general partner liable for actual fraud or willful misconduct in its capacity as our general partner. Cause does not include most cases of charges of poor management of the business, so the removal of our general partner because of the unitholders' dissatisfaction with our general partner's performance in managing us will most likely result in the automatic conversion to common units of all remaining outstanding subordinated units. Furthermore, unitholders' voting rights are further restricted by the partnership agreement provision providing that any units held by a person that owns 20.0% or more of any class of units then outstanding, other than our general partner, its affiliates, their transferees, and persons who acquired such units with the prior approval of the board of directors of our general partner, cannot vote on any matter. Our partnership agreement also contains provisions limiting the ability of unitholders to call meetings or to acquire information about our operations, as well as other provisions limiting the unitholders' ability to influence the manner or direction of management.

Our general partner may transfer its general partner interest to a third party at any time without the consent of the unitholders. Furthermore, there is no restriction in our partnership agreement on the ability of USD Group LLC to transfer its membership interest in our general partner to a third party. The new owners of our general partner would then be in a position to replace the board of directors and officers of our general partner with their own choices and to control the decisions taken by the board of directors and officers.

Our general partner may transfer its incentive distribution rights to a third party at any time without the consent of our unitholders. If our general partner transfers its incentive distribution rights to a third party but retains its general partner interest, our general partner may not have the same incentive to grow our partnership and increase quarterly distributions to unitholders over time as it would if it had retained ownership of its incentive distribution rights. For example, a transfer of incentive distribution rights by our general partner could reduce the likelihood of USD selling or contributing additional midstream infrastructure assets and businesses to us, as USD would have less of an economic incentive to grow our business, which in turn would impact our ability to grow our asset base.

At any time, we may issue an unlimited number of limited partner interests of any type without the approval of our unitholders and our unitholders will have no preemptive or other rights (solely as a result of their status as unitholders) to purchase any such limited partner interests. Further, neither our partnership agreement nor our senior secured credit agreement prohibits the issuance of equity securities that may effectively rank senior to our common units as to distributions or liquidations. The issuance by us of additional common units or other equity securities of equal or senior rank will have the following effects: - our unitholders' proportionate ownership interest in us will decrease;- the amount of distributable cash flow on each unit may decrease;- because a lower percentage of total outstanding units will be subordinated units, the risk that a shortfall in the payment of the minimum quarterly distribution will be borne by our common unitholders will increase;- the ratio of taxable income to distributions may increase;- the relative voting strength of each previously outstanding unit may be diminished; and - the market price of our common units may decline.

USD Group LLC held 9,464,381 common units and 2,092,709 subordinated units at December 31, 2019. All of the remaining subordinated units converted into common units on a one-for-one basis on February 20, 2020. We have agreed to provide USD Group LLC with certain registration rights. USD Group LLC and its affiliates may sell, transfer or pledge as security all or some of the units held by them without any duty to us. Such sale of units in the public or private markets, or pledging or transfer of units, could have an adverse impact on the price of the common units.  At December 31, 2019, a value of up to $10.0 million of these common units were pledged as collateral by USD Group LLC for their letter of credit facility.

Our partnership agreement requires our general partner to deduct from operating surplus cash reserves that it determines are necessary to fund our future operating expenditures. In addition, our partnership agreement permits the general partner to reduce available cash by establishing cash reserves for the proper conduct of our business, to comply with applicable law or agreements to which we are a party, or to provide funds for future distributions to partners. These cash reserves will affect the amount of distributable cash flow to unitholders.

If at any time our general partner and its affiliates own more than 80.0% of the then issued and outstanding common units, our general partner has the right, but not the obligation, which it may assign to any of its affiliates or to us, to acquire all, but not less than all, of the common units held by unaffiliated persons at a price not less than their then-current market price. As a result, you may be required to sell your common units at an undesirable time or price and may not receive any return on your investment. You may also incur a tax liability upon a sale of your units. Our general partner and its affiliates own 35.1% of our common units (excluding any common units held by our officers, directors, employees and certain other persons affiliated with us) and 42.9% of our common units assuming the conversion of all subordinated units into common units.

A general partner of a partnership generally has unlimited liability for the obligations of the partnership, except for those contractual obligations of the partnership that are expressly made non-recourse to the general partner. Our partnership is organized under Delaware law, and we conduct business in a number of other states. The limitations on the liability of holders of limited partner interests for the obligations of a limited partnership have not been clearly established in some jurisdictions. You could be liable for our obligations as if you were a general partner if a court or government agency were to determine that: - we were conducting business in a state but had not complied with that particular state's partnership statute; or - your right to act with other unitholders to remove or replace the general partner, to approve some amendments to our partnership agreement or to take other actions under our partnership agreement constitute "control" of our business.

Under certain circumstances, unitholders may have to repay amounts wrongfully distributed to them. Under Section 17-607 of the Delaware Revised Uniform Limited Partnership Act, we may not make a distribution to you if the distribution would cause our liabilities to exceed the fair value of our assets. Delaware law provides that for a period of three years from the date of the impermissible distribution, limited partners who received the distribution and who knew at the time of the distribution that it violated Delaware law will be liable to the limited partnership for the distribution amount. Transferees of common units are liable for the obligations of the transferor to make contributions to the partnership that are known to the transferee at the time of the transfer and for unknown obligations if the liabilities could be determined from our partnership agreement. Liabilities to partners on account of their partnership interest and liabilities that are non-recourse to the partnership are not counted for purposes of determining whether a distribution is permitted.

Interest rates may increase in the future. As a result, interest rates on our future indebtedness could be higher than current levels, causing our financing costs to increase accordingly. As with other yield-oriented securities, our unit price is affected by the level of our cash distributions and implied distribution yield. The distribution yield is often used by investors to compare and rank yield-oriented securities for investment decision-making purposes. Therefore, changes in interest rates, either positive or negative, may affect our interest expense and distributable cash flow, the yield requirements of investors who invest in our units, and a rising interest rate environment could have an adverse impact on our unit price, our ability to issue equity or incur debt for acquisitions or other purposes and our ability to make cash distributions at our intended levels.

Our general partner has the right, at any time when there are no subordinated units outstanding and it has received distributions on its incentive distribution rights at the highest level to which it is entitled (48.0%, in addition to distributions paid on its general partner interest) for each of the prior four consecutive fiscal quarters, to reset the initial target distribution levels at higher levels based on our distributions at the time of the exercise of the reset election. Following a reset election, the minimum quarterly distribution will be adjusted to equal the reset minimum quarterly distribution, and the target distribution levels will be reset to correspondingly higher levels based on percentage increases above the reset minimum quarterly distribution. If our general partner elects to reset the target distribution levels, it will be entitled to receive a number of common units and general partner units. The number of common units to be issued to our general partner will be equal to that number of common units that would have entitled the general partner to a quarterly cash distribution equal to distributions to our general partner on the incentive distribution rights in the prior quarter. Our general partner will also be issued the number of general partner units necessary to maintain our general partner's interest in us at the level that existed immediately prior to the reset election. We anticipate that our general partner would exercise this reset right in order to facilitate acquisitions or internal growth projects that would not be sufficiently accretive to cash distributions per common unit without such conversion. It is possible, however, that our general partner could exercise this reset election at a time when it is experiencing, or expects to experience, declines in the cash distributions it receives related to its incentive distribution rights and may, therefore, desire to be issued common units rather than retain the right to receive distributions based on the initial target distribution levels. This risk could be elevated if our incentive distribution rights have been transferred to a third party. As a result, a reset election may cause our common unitholders to experience a reduction in the amount of cash distributions that they would have otherwise received had we not issued new common units and general partner units in connection with resetting the target distribution levels. Additionally, our general partner has the right to transfer all or any portion of our incentive distribution rights at any time, and such transferee shall have the same rights as the general partner relative to resetting target distributions if our general partner concurs that the tests for resetting target distributions have been fulfilled.

Our common units are listed on the NYSE. Because we are a publicly traded limited partnership, the NYSE does not require us to have a majority of independent directors on our general partner's board of directors or to establish a compensation committee or a nominating and corporate governance committee. Accordingly, unitholders will not have the same protections afforded to shareholders of corporations that are subject to all of the NYSE corporate governance requirements.

The market price of our common units may also be influenced by many factors, some of which are beyond our control, including: - our quarterly distributions;- our quarterly or annual earnings or those of other companies in our industry;- announcements by us or our competitors of significant contracts or acquisitions;- changes in accounting standards, policies, guidance, interpretations or principles;- general economic conditions;- the failure of securities analysts to cover our common units or changes in financial estimates by analysts;- future sales of our common units; and - other factors described in these "Risk Factors."

Because a unitholder is treated as a partner to whom we will allocate taxable income that could be different in amount than the cash we distribute, a unitholder's allocable share of our taxable income will be taxable to the unitholder, which may require the payment of U.S. federal income taxes and, in some cases, state and local income taxes, on the unitholder's share of our taxable income even if the unitholder receives no cash distributions from us. Our unitholders may not receive cash distributions from us equal to their share of our taxable income or even equal to the actual tax liability that results from that income. A unitholder's share of our taxable income, and its relationship to any distributions we make, may be affected by a variety of factors, including our economic performance, which may be affected by numerous business, economic, regulatory, legislative, competitive and political uncertainties beyond our control, and certain transactions in which we might engage. For example, we may engage in transactions that produce substantial taxable income allocations to some or all of our unitholders without a corresponding increase in cash distributions to our unitholders, such as a sale or exchange of assets, the proceeds of which are reinvested in our business or used to reduce our debt. A unitholder's ratio of its share of taxable income to the cash received by it may also be affected by changes in law. For instance, under the tax reform law commonly known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the net interest expense deductions of certain business entities, including us, are limited to 30% of such entity's "adjusted taxable income," which is generally taxable income with certain modifications. If the limit applies, a unitholder's taxable income allocations will be more (or its net loss allocations will be less) than would have been the case absent the limitation.

If our unitholders sell common units, they will recognize a gain or loss for U.S. federal income tax purposes equal to the difference between the amount realized and their tax basis in those common units. Because distributions in excess of their allocable share of our net taxable income decrease their tax basis in their common units, the amount, if any, of such prior excess distributions with respect to the common units a unitholder sells will, in effect, become taxable income to the unitholder if it sells such common units at a price greater than its tax basis in those common units, even if the price received is less than its original cost. Furthermore, a substantial portion of the amount realized on a sale of common units, whether or not representing gain, may be taxed as ordinary income due to potential recapture of depreciation deductions. Thus, selling unitholders may recognize both ordinary income and capital loss from the sale of their units if the amount realized on a sale of their units is less than their adjusted basis in the units. Net capital loss may only offset capital gains and, in the case of individuals, up to $3,000 of ordinary income per year. In the taxable period in which a selling unitholder sells their units, they may recognize ordinary income from our allocations of income and gain to them prior to the sale and from recapture items that generally cannot be offset by any capital loss recognized upon the sale of units. In addition, because the amount realized includes a unitholder's share of our nonrecourse liabilities, a unitholder that sells common units, may incur a tax liability in excess of the amount of cash received from the sale.

Investment in common units by tax-exempt entities, such as employee benefit plans and individual retirement accounts, or IRAs, and non-U.S. persons raises issues unique to them. For example, virtually all of our income allocated to organizations that are exempt from U.S. federal income tax, including IRAs and other retirement plans, will be unrelated business taxable income and will be taxable to them. Further, subject to the proposed aggregation rules for certain similarly situated businesses or activities issued by the Treasury Department, a tax-exempt entity with more than one unrelated trade or business (including by attribution from investment in a partnership such as ours) is required to compute the unrelated business taxable income of such tax-exempt entity separately with respect to each such trade or business (including for purposes of determining any net operating loss deduction). As a result, it may not be possible for tax-exempt entities to utilize losses from an investment in our partnership to offset unrelated business taxable income from another unrelated trade or business and vice versa. If you are a tax-exempt entity, you should consult a tax advisor before investing in our common units. Non-U.S. unitholders are generally taxed and subject to income tax filing requirements by the United States on income effectively connected with a U.S. trade or business ("effectively connected income"). Income allocated to our unitholders and any gain from the sale of our units will generally be considered to be "effectively connected" with a U.S. trade or business. As a result, distributions to non-U.S. persons will be reduced by withholding taxes at the highest applicable effective tax rate, and non-U.S. persons will be required to file U.S. federal income tax returns and pay tax on their share of our taxable income. If you are a non-U.S. person, you should consult a tax advisor before investing in our common units.

Upon the sale, exchange or other disposition of a unit by a foreign unitholder, the transferee is generally required to withhold 10% of the amount realized on such sale, exchange or other disposition if any portion of the gain on such sale, exchange or other disposition would be treated as effectively connected with a U.S. trade or business. If the transferee fails to satisfy this withholding requirement, we will be required to deduct and withhold such amount (plus interest) from future distributions to the transferee. Because the "amount realized" would include a unitholder's share of our nonrecourse liabilities, 10% of the amount realized could exceed the total cash purchase price for such disposed units. Due to this fact, our inability to match transferors and transferees of units, and other uncertainty surrounding the application of these withholding rules, the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the IRS have currently suspended these rules for transfers of certain publicly traded partnership interests, including transfers of our units, until regulations or other guidance has been issued. It is unclear when such regulations or other guidance will be issued. If you are a non-U.S. person, you should consult a tax advisor before investing in our common units.

Because we cannot match transferors and transferees of common units and because of other reasons, we have adopted depreciation and amortization positions that may not conform to all aspects of existing Treasury regulations promulgated under the Internal Revenue Code and referred to as "Treasury Regulations." A successful IRS challenge to those positions could adversely affect the amount of tax benefits available to you. A successful IRS challenge could also affect the timing of these tax benefits or the amount of gain from your sale of common units and could have a negative impact on the value of our common units or result in audit adjustments to your tax returns.

Because a unitholder whose common units are loaned to a "short seller" to effect a short sale of common units may be considered as having disposed of the loaned common units, he may no longer be treated for federal income tax purposes as a partner with respect to those common units during the period of the loan to the short seller and the unitholder may be required to recognize gain or loss from such disposition. Moreover, during the period of the loan to the short seller, any of our income, gain, loss or deduction with respect to those common units may not be reportable by the unitholder and any cash distributions received by the unitholder as to those common units could be fully taxable as ordinary income. Unitholders desiring to assure their status as partners and avoid the risk of gain recognition from a loan to a short seller are urged to modify any applicable brokerage account agreements to prohibit their brokers from loaning their common units.

In determining the items of income, gain, loss and deduction allocable to our unitholders, in certain circumstances, including when we issue additional units, we must determine the fair market value of our assets. Although we may from time to time consult with professional appraisers regarding valuation matters, we make many fair value estimates using a methodology based on the market value of our common units as a means to measure the fair market value of our assets. The IRS may challenge these valuation methods and the resulting allocations of income, gain, loss and deduction. For example,our methodology may be viewed as understating the value of our assets. In that case, there may be a shift of income, gain, loss and deduction between certain unitholders and our general partner, which may be unfavorable to such unitholders. A successful IRS challenge to these methods or allocations could adversely affect the amount, character and timing of taxable income or loss allocated to our unitholders. It also could affect the amount of gain from our unitholders' sale of common units and could have a negative impact on the value of our common units or result in audit adjustments to our unitholders' tax returns without the benefit of additional deductions.