{"id":690,"date":"2017-02-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-02-09T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/lawmakers-need-realtors-on-tax-reform\/"},"modified":"2017-02-09T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-02-09T00:00:00","slug":"lawmakers-need-realtors-on-tax-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/lawmakers-need-realtors-on-tax-reform\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawmakers Need REALTORS\u00ae on Tax Reform"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The chairman of the tax-writing House Ways & Means\u00a0Committee\u00a0joined\u00a0REALTORS\u00ae\u00a0at NAR\u2019s 2017 Federal\u00a0Policy Conference\u00a0in Washington\u00a0yesterday and\u00a0urged\u00a0them\u00a0to stay engaged\u00a0over the next year\u00a0while lawmakers in Congress look at a full-scale reform of the country\u2019s tax code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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NAR President William Brown greets Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), chair of the tax-writing House Ways & Means Committee, at the 2017 NAR Federal Policy Conference Feb. 8 in Washington.<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\u201cWe\u00a0have a historic opportunity, the first time in 30 years, to completely reform the\u00a0tax\u00a0law,\u201d Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) told hundreds of\u00a0politically active REALTORS\u00ae\u00a0in Washington\u00a0Feb. 8 for the\u00a0conference, which NAR holds every other\u00a0year to educate its most\u00a0politically involved members\u00a0on\u00a0the issues that are expected to dominate the Washington agenda for the year.<\/p>\n

This year,\u00a0tax reform is expected to be high on the list of priorities\u00a0Congress and the new Administration\u00a0are expected\u00a0to take up. Reform\u00a0of the secondary\u00a0mortgage<\/a> market is also on the agenda for later in the year, along\u00a0with flood insurance reauthorization and reform.<\/p>\n

Brady\u00a0introduced REALTORS\u00ae to a tax reform\u00a0blueprint\u00a0that Republicans\u00a0in the House are working on and which stands\u00a0a good chance of being the main vehicle for any\u00a0tax reform effort that gets taken up in the House.<\/p>\n

The blueprint envisions broadening the tax base by condensing tax brackets from seven to three, with tax rates of 33, 25,\u00a0and 12 percent,\u00a0respectively, and\u00a0increasing the standard\u00a0deduction to almost twice its current amount. It would also eliminate\u00a0many itemized\u00a0deductions, including for state and local\u00a0taxes. The mortgage interest deduction and the deduction for\u00a0charitable contributions would\u00a0remain, but because of the higher standard deduction, it\u2019s likely\u00a0most homeowners would no longer have an incentive to itemize, a concern of NAR\u2019s.<\/p>\n

On the commercial side, the blueprint does not specifically repeal 1031 like-kind exchanges. However, Brady admitted the committee is considering eliminating the provision. \u00a0The blueprint would allow owners to deduct 100 percent of the cost of new business assets, including buildings (but not land)\u00a0in the first year of ownership. Brady along with Rep.\u00a0Peter\u00a0Roskam\u00a0(R-Ill.),\u00a0chair of\u00a0the tax policy subcommittee of the\u00a0Ways & Means\u00a0Committee,\u00a0said the accelerated expensing could go a long way to offsetting the 1031 exchange as an investment incentive,\u00a0but they wanted to hear from REALTORS\u00ae\u00a0more about their\u00a0concerns.\u00a0\u201cWe\u00a0haven\u2019t made our decisions yet,\u201d said\u00a0Roskam.\u00a0\u201cWere listening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maintaining 1031 exchanges is a top priority for NAR. In the question and answer period, a\u00a0REALTOR\u00ae asserted that\u00a0two-thirds of commercial investment is spurred directly or indirectly by the exchanges.<\/p>\n

At the conference, REALTORS\u00ae\u00a0also heard about the prospects for secondary mortgage market reform. The big ideological debate on that issue centers\u00a0around\u00a0whether the federal government should continue\u00a0to back mortgages sold in the\u00a0secondary\u00a0market. A staff aide at the conference\u00a0said legislation has been\u00a0introduced to help make the debate easier by allowing more\u00a0private sector parties\u00a0to buy the risk held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Other legislation would touch\u00a0on a common securitization platform Fannie and\u00a0Freddie are working on, which would allow private insurers to get into the market more.\u00a0\u201cThese are things we can agree on and make the decision [about federal backing] easier once we get there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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Read more<\/strong>: We Could Lose 1031s. Here’s Why That Matters<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

NAR wants to see the federal government stay in the market to ensure the viability of affordable, 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages and\u00a0also ensure\u00a0mortgages are available in bad times as well as good.<\/p>\n

On flood insurance, congressional aides said many lawmakers\u00a0want\u00a0to avoid the kind of short-term reauthorizations\u00a0of\u00a0the National Flood Insurance Program that the market saw several years ago. \u00a0NAR supports early\u00a0reauthorization\u00a0of the program, which expires later\u00a0this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2014REALTOR\u00ae Magazine<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[ad_1] The chairman of the tax-writing House Ways & Means\u00a0Committee\u00a0joined\u00a0REALTORS\u00ae\u00a0at NAR\u2019s 2017 Federal\u00a0Policy Conference\u00a0in Washington\u00a0yesterday and\u00a0urged\u00a0them\u00a0to … Lawmakers Need REALTORS\u00ae on Tax Reform<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":691,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[1403,12908,543,627,698,408,312,1007,41,818,693,1262],"class_list":["post-690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opportunities-in-new-markets","tag-buy","tag-home","tag-home-buying-guide","tag-homeowners","tag-insurance","tag-mortgage","tag-mortgages","tag-owners","tag-property","tag-real","tag-realtors","tag-taxes"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/2_9_brown_brady.png?fit=1642%2C1102&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}