Category: Action

Historic Preservation Easements Have Been Unfairly Targeted by an Aggressive IRS Campaign. Take Action!

The Federal Historic Preservation Easement program is a tax incentive that promotes the preservation and rehabilitation of historic buildings by allowing deductions for charitable contribution of historic preservation easements. Unfortunately this important program has been been undercut by an aggressive IRS campaign aimed at ending abusive conservation easement transactions. The campaign has resulted in denying nearly all conservation and historic easement deductions and thus deterring investments in historic preservation. The impact of this action on the historic preservation community is amplified as the COVID-19 pandemic has adversely impacted many historic building owners and historic rehabilitation projects.

Take Action

Write your members of Congress and urge them to work with the IRS, Treasury, the White House Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, and other agencies across the Administration on the following initiatives:

1. Exempt Historic Preservation Easements from the IRS enforcement campaign.
2. Quickly resolve pending Historic Preservation Easement cases.
3. Provide clear regulations for historic property owners seeking to utilize this important program.

These actions will help ensure that historic preservationists can continue to protect and restore iconic federally recognized historic buildings across the country, furthering Congressional intent of the Historic Preservation Easement program.  They will also spur new investment into historic neighborhoods in urban areas across the country, contributing to a post-pandemic economic recovery.

Send the sample letter below to your members of Congress today!

If you have a personal contact in your Representative or Senator’s Washington D.C or District office, contact that person directly. Be sure to include Preservation Action at rnaylor@preservationaction.org on your communication.

Learn more:

• Historic Preservation Easements One Pager
• Bloomberg Tax: Reverse Loophole Exploited by IRS Threatens Economic Revitalization
• Study: Preservation Easements and the Resurgence of Downtown Columbus
• Study: Using the Right Tools. Preservation Easements and Downtown Columbia, South Carolina

Urge Congress to Include Historic Preservation Programs in Future Coronavirus Stimulus and Relief Legislation

Update: 7-01-2020

This week, the House passed the Moving Forward Act, a $1.5 trillion infrastructure bill. This bill includes several provisions and temporary measures to expand and enhance the Historic Tax Credit. The bill includes the following Historic Tax Credit provisions:

• A temporary increase of the Historic Tax Credit from 20% to 30% for 5 years.
• Establishes a permanent 30% Historic Tax Credit for projects $2.5 million and less
• Eliminates the HTC Basis Adjustment, bringing more value to HTCs
• Reduces the Historic Rehab Test to 50% of a building’s basis instead of 100%
• Makes the credit easier to use by non-profits
• A provision for communities to rehabilitate existing public schools using the HTC
• Temporary extension of period for completing rehabilitation

Several of these provisions were included in the Historic Tax Credit Growth and Opportunity Act (S.2615 / H.R. 2825) and in the request that Preservation Action and our partners sent to Congress.

Take Action!

Attention now turns to the Senate. Urge your Senators to support the Historic Tax Credit provisions included in the Moving Forward Act. If you have a personal contact in your Senator’s Washington D.C or District office, contact that person directly. Encourage them to support the Historic Tax Credit provisions included in the Moving Forward Act (H.R 2) and forward them the Historic Tax Credit Economic Stimulus Request Talking Points. Also be sure to thank your Representative for their support. You can also use this easy to use tool from the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

As Congress is considering future relief efforts in response to the coronavirus pandemic, Preservation Action along with our partners are advocating to make sure the historic preservation community is part of that conversation. Preservation Action joined our partners at the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers along with more than 30 organizations and businesses in a letter to the House and Senate Appropriations Committee requesting $120 million for the Historic Preservation Fund.

• $30 million to support survey and digitization for State Historic Preservation Officers and $15 million for Tribal Historic Preservation Officers.
• $75 million for Certified Local Governments to support brick and mortar projects.

We also joined for the National Trust for Historic Preservation along with more than 375 organizations and businesses in sending a preservation community letter to House and Senate leaders requesting support for preservation programs that would help to stimulate the economy. The letter calls for:

• Including the provisions of the Historic Tax Credit Growth and Opportunity Act (S.2615 / H.R. 2825) and additional changes including a temporary increase in the value of the HTC from 20% to 30%.
• $30 million to support survey and digitization for State Historic Preservation Officers and $15 million for Tribal Historic Preservation Officers.
• $75 million for Certified Local Governments to support brick and mortar projects.
• $300 million to support existing Historic Preservation Fund grant programs ($75 million each for Civil Rights grants, Paul Bruhn Historic Revitalization Grants, Save America’s Treasures, and HBCU Preservation program).
• Enactment of the Great American Outdoors Act (S. 3422).
• Additional provisions supporting charitable giving and the non-profit community
• Urging opposition to legislative exemptions for the National Historic Preservation Act and National Environmental Protection Act.

Thank you to everyone that joined us by signing on to these letters.

Take Action! Urge your Representatives and Senators to support historic preservation programs that help to stimulate the economy as part of future coronavirus relief and recovery efforts.

If you have a personal contact in your Representative or Senator’s Washington D.C or District office, contact that person directly. Or you can call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-225-3121 and ask to be connected to your Representative or Senator’s DC office. Please keep in mind that most congressional staff are working remotely at this time.

Share the historic preservation assistance request letter, preservation community letter, and Historic Tax Credit Economic Economic Stimulus Request Talking Points with your members. Ask them to support historic preservation programs that help stimulate the economy as part of future coronavirus relief and recovery efforts. This includes additional funding for the Historic Preservation Fund which would support programs that help local economies, while preserving irreplaceable historic resources. And support enhancements to the Federal Rehabilitation Tax Credit (HTC) that would increase rehabilitation activities, create jobs, and spur economic development in local economies.

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Additional Resources

• Virtual Preservation Month Briefing: Historic Preservation’s Role in Recovery
• Historic Preservation Community Letter sent to Congressional Leaders
• Historic Preservation Assistance Request Letter sent to House and Senate Appropriations Committee
• Historic Tax Credit Economic Economic Stimulus Request Talking Points
• Historic Tax Credit Project Maps by State 2002-2019 
• Letter Template for HTC Request in Economic Recovery
• Advisory Council on Historic Preservation Legislative Exemptions Letter
• Preservation Action Effective Lobbying Guide

Congress is starting the appropriations process which will determine Fiscal Year 2021 funding levels for historic preservation. The co-chairs of the Historic Preservation Caucus, Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Rep. Michael Turner (R-OH), are leading the bipartisan FY21 Historic Preservation Fund (HPF) Dear Colleague Letter in the House. The letter request $150 million in funding for the HPF, the same level Preservation Action is advocating for during Advocacy Week and represents full funding for the HPF. The request includes significant increases for State and Tribal Historic Preservation Offices, and increases to critically important competitive grant programs. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand are leading the FY21 HPF Dear Colleague Letter in the Senate. 

FY21 House HPF Letter Signers

FY21 House HPF Dear Colleague Letter

Find Your Senators

FY21 Senate HPF Dear Colleague Letter

“I request that you sign-on to the FY21 Historic Preservation Fund Dear Colleague letter being circulated by Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), in support of funding for the Historic Preservation Fund. The requested amount supports the important work of State and Tribal Historic Preservation Officers to administer the federal historic preservation program and continues to support competitive grant programs that are helping preserve the sites and stories of underrepresented communities, revitalize historic buildings in rural communities, and helping to preserve nationally significant properties and collections that help to tell America’s rich history.

 

The Historic Preservation Fund (HPF) uses non-tax payer dollars to partner with States and Tribes to help save important places in your community and brings local voices to federal decision-making. Adequate funding for the HPF is essential for recognizing, preserving and utilizing our Nation’s historic resources for all Americans”

Preservation Action, Action Alert
Urge Your Senators to Cosponsor the HTC-GO Act: October 17, 2019

Senators Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) have introduced the Senate version of the Historic Tax Credit Growth and Opportunity Act (S. 2615, H.R 2825). Similar to the House version of the HTC-GO Act, the Senate legislation would bring more value to Historic Tax Credit projects, improve access to the credit, and encourage investment in smaller rehabilitation projects.

The HTC Growth and Opportunity Act would eliminate the tax credit basis adjustment, which decreases the value of the HTC. This change would make the HTC more in line with the other tax credit programs and help restore some of the value lost by changes made during tax reform. Additionally, the bill would increase the credit from 20% to 30% for projects under $2.5 million. This would make the credit more appealing and improve access for smaller projects. The House version of the bill is up to 50 cosponsors. 

Action Alert: Urge Your Senators to Cosponsor S. 2615 Today →