The National Association of Home Builders is opposing a congressional bill, which passed the House of Representatives on Monday, that it said could have a “significant negative impact on the multifamily housing industry.”
While expressing support for some of the aims of HR 3996, dubbed the Temporary Tax Relief Act, the builders’ group said in a statement Friday it opposes a provision raising taxes on capital gain income generated by carried interest held by general partners in real estate investment partnerships.
This tax increase, which the group said could raise the tax rate for capital-gains income related to some types of real estate partnerships from 15 percent to 35 percent, “would disrupt the investment relationship between developers and investors,” according to a statement by Brian Catalde, NAHB president.
“NAHB shares the goals embodied in HR 3996 to … help struggling families keep their homes,” Catalde said. “However, the carried interest proposal to offset the cost of this relief is the most significant and potentially most disruptive tax on real estate since the 1986 Tax Reform Act and would result in higher prices for housing, less job creation and lower community development, especially in underserved areas,” he added.
The legislation would extend through 2014 the tax deduction for mortgage-insurance premiums; would allow an exclusion from gross income for up to $2 million of income attributable to discharges of home mortgage indebtedness incurred after Jan. 1, 2007; and would limit the exclusion from gross income of gain from the sale of a principal residence by denying an exclusion of the gain that can be allocated to a nonqualified use of that residence, such as a use other than as a principal residence.
A Congressional Budget Office analysis of the legislation states that the bill’s provision with the largest effect would raise the exemption amounts and extend for one year the use of nonrefundable credits for the Alternative Minimum Tax, a tax that requires all taxpayers pay at least a minimum amount of federal income tax for their income bracket no matter the amount of claimed deductions and credits.
That tax, which was created in 1969 but has been repeatedly put off, would have the largest impact on high-income households but could affect about 23 million people, including families who earn $75,000 or year or less, the Los Angeles Times reports.
