If you own a piece of an energy limited partnership, you’ve suffered epic losses in recent months as the price of oil has crashed.

Now you may be in for a surprise tax bill as well.

Master limited partnerships, as these complex vehicles are known, are common in the energy industry. They’ve been around since the 1980s, but it wasn’t until recently that they took on star status among individual investors. (Pension funds usually steer clear of these partnerships because they create tax liabilities for them.)

Because these partnerships must distribute all of their excess cash flow to investors, their quarterly payments are generous. Regular savers whose fixed-income investments have been ravaged by the Federal Reserve’s zero-percent interest rate policy have found these entities’ payouts of 6 percent or more especially attractive.

Wealthy people, too, have flocked to United States partnerships for their tax advantages. Because they are not corporations, they pay no corporate taxes on the income they generate. Those tax bills were passed along to investors, resulting in a reduced overall tax rate.