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Call to Action: Your Help Needed Regarding Senate Legislation on Commercial Building Fire Sprinkler Retrofit Tax Credit

By: Mark Knurek on March 22nd, 2019

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Call to Action: Your Help Needed Regarding Senate Legislation on Commercial Building Fire Sprinkler Retrofit Tax Credit

Commercial  |  Industry News

BlazeMaster® Fire Protection Systems joins with the NFSA in encouraging everyone associated with the fire sprinkler industry to reach out to your Senators immediately to request that they co-sponsor S. 803 legislation.

Passage of S. 803 would allow owners of commercial buildings to realize same-year tax benefits for fire sprinkler retrofits to their buildings rather than a 39-year depreciation schedule as had been extant in the existing IRS tax code.

The NFSA, which worked hard on behalf of the fire sprinkler industry to raise congressional attention to this matter in December of 2017, released the following information on Monday, March 18 regarding S. 803:

 

Last week, Senators Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Doug Jones (D-Ala.) introduced legislation (S. 803) to fix a provision in President Trump's 2017 tax-cut law that adversely affects the sprinkler industry. Before the law's enactment, fire sprinkler retrofits in commercial buildings would be written off over a 39-year period. This exceedingly long recovery was a major impediment to fire sprinkler retrofits. 

Congress intended for the 2017 statute to allow businesses to write off the full costs of those renovations in the year they were made. Unfortunately, because of a drafting error, property owners cannot realize the tax benefit that Congress intended and are left with the legacy 39-year depreciation schedule. The measure offered by Toomey and Jones would allow businesses to immediately deduct the full cost of fire sprinkler retrofits. The fix would apply retroactively, as if it had been included as intended in the 2017 tax law.

 

Passage of this legislation will enhance fire safety in commercial buildings and reward commercial building owners financially for doing so. We believe this is something our entire industry should encourage. Please consider contacting your Senator as soon as possible to urge that they co-sponsor this legislation and support its passage.

Click here to create an email to your legislators. It's easy and will allow you to join us as we contact legislators to support this legislative technical correction. Make sure you reference S. 803 in your correspondence.

Should you need more information or would like information on how to personally contact your Senator, please contact Vickie Pritchett, Director, Outreach & Government Relations, NFSA at:

pritchett@nfsa.org

443.863.4398 Office

 

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