According to the Historic Tax Credit Campaign, the House version of the Historic Tax Credit Improvement Act (H.R. 3846) is enjoying strong bi-partisan support on the Ways and Means Committee and presently has 29 members of congress supporting the bill, directly demonstrating support for the Historic Tax Credit. The Campaign is now focused on gathering co-sponsors for the Senate version of the bill along with continuing to add co-sponsors to the House bill.

Please reach out to your House and Senate Members and ask them to Co-sponsor the Historic Tax Credit Improvement Act (HTCIA). Please contact Mike Phillips for any assistance (mphillips@ntcic.com or 202-440-0899).

How to Take Action

Locate the name of your House Representative.

Locate the names of your Senators.

  1. Call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-225-3121 and asked to be connected to your Senators’ or House Member’s DC office.
  2.  When connected to office, ask which staffer handles tax reform issues and ask to be connected with that person.
  3. Share why you value the Historic Tax Credit and why the Historic Tax Credit Improvement Act would be beneficial. If no person is available, leave a brief message and ask for a return call.
  4. Ask them to co-sponsor the Historic Tax Credit Improvement Act bill number H.R. 3846 in the House and S. 2655 in the Senate.
  5. Ask for an email address to follow-up so you can share the attached one-pager on the legislation.
  6. Report action taken to Mike Phillips at mphillips@ntcic.com or 202-440-0899.

Senators Seek to Strengthen Historic Tax Credit

Senators Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Susan Collins (R-ME) introduced the Historic Tax Credit Improvement Act of 2015. Like its companion legislation, which was introduced to the House last fall, the bill aims to strengthen the Historic Tax Credit in several ways. According to Novogradac, the bill would:

  • increase the credit and allow credit transfers for certain small projects;
  • lower the rehabilitation expenditure threshold from 100 percent to 50 percent of adjusted basis;
  • reduce depreciable basis adjustment for rehabilitation property;
  • change how the federal government taxes proceeds from state credits;
  • and modify certain tax-exempt use property rules.

While the House bill includes a provision to allow functionally related buildings to be treated as separate properties, the Senate bill does not.

House Legislation Seeks Major Changes to Historic Tax Credit

October 21, 2015 — Representative Mike Kelly (R-PA) introduced legislation seeking the first major changes to the Historic Tax Credit since 1986. Similar legislation is expected to be introduced in the Senate.

The legislation, entitled the Historic Tax Credit Improvement Act, makes long overdue changes to the Historic Tax Credit to further encourage reuse and redevelopment in small, midsize, and rural communities. It also makes the rehabilitation of community projects like theaters, libraries, schools and others easier while maximizing the impact of state credits. Finally, the bill would make more historic properties eligible to use the credit by updating program requirements to reflect current industry practices.

The bill has 9 co-sponsors as of October 30, 2015:

  • Rep. Kelly, Mike [R-PA-3]*
  • Rep. Blumenauer, Earl [D-OR-3]*
  • Rep. Tiberi, Patrick J. [R-OH-12]*
  • Rep. Neal, Richard E. [D-MA-1]*
  • Rep. Boustany, Charles W., Jr. [R-LA-3]*
  • Rep. Larson, John B. [D-CT-1]*
  • Rep. Turner, Michael R. [R-OH-10]*
  • Rep. Kind, Ron [D-WI-3]*
  • Rep. Rangel, Charles B. [D-NY-13]*
  • Rep. Reed, Tom [R-NY-23]*
  • Rep. McGovern, James P. [D-MA-2]
  • Rep. Kilmer, Derek [D-WA-6]
  • Rep. Renacci, James B. [R-OH-16]
  • Rep. Poe, Ted [R-TX-2]
  • Rep. Jenkins, Lynn [R-KS-2]
  • Rep. Pocan, Mark [D-WI-2]
  • Rep. Norton, Eleanor Holmes [D-DC-At Large]
  • Rep. Veasey, Marc A. [D-TX-33]
  • Rep. Bonamici, Suzanne [D-OR-1]
  • Rep. Huizenga, Bill [R-MI-2]
  • Rep. Reichert, David G. [R-WA-8]
  • Rep. Beatty, Joyce [D-OH-3]
  • Rep. Chabot, Steve [R-OH-1]
  • Rep. Byrne, Bradley [R-AL-1]
  • Rep. Blum, Rod [R-IA-1]
  • Rep. Kaptur, Marcy [D-OH-9]
  • Rep. Tsongas, Niki [D-MA-3]
  • Rep. Brooks, Susan W. [R-IN-5]
  • Rep. Ashford, Brad [D-NE-2]
  • Rep. Moore, Gwen [D-WI-4]

The National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Historic Tax Credit Coalition worked on the legislation. They developed this Historic Tax Credit Improvement Act – One Pager.