Reps. Aaron Schock (R-Ill.) and Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) last week introduced the Creating American Prosperity through Preservation Act of 2011 (H.R. 2479). The CAPP Act would make significant changes to the federal historic tax credit, including:
- Provide a boost to 30 percent for small deals of less than $5 million in qualified rehabilitation expenditures;
- Provide a 2 percent HTC boost for achieving energy use savings at least 30 percent greater than established industry standards for similar buildings;
- Eliminate the federal taxation of the proceeds of a state HTC transaction for both state credit certificate sales and credits allocated through partnerships;
- Expand the number of properties that qualify for the HTC by indexing the eligibility date for the 10 percent non-historic rehabilitation tax credit so that both 20 percent and 10 percent credits would apply to buildings 50 years and older; and
- Help target the HTC’s impact to low-income communities by allowing not-for-profits to act as HTC project sponsors and building tenants.
