MBA and NHC express support for housing provisions in GOP tax bill

As the debate over tax reform continues to play out in Congress, housing organizations are lauding the housing provisions in the House of Representatives‘ Ways and Means Committee’s current tax proposal.

The National Housing Conference (NHC) praised the housing provisions included in the current draft of the bill through a statement from David Dworkin, its president and CEO.

“NHC strongly supports the housing provisions included in the House Ways and Means Committee’s tax reform bill, which expand the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), preserve and make permanent the mortgage interest deduction (MID), and extend, expand, and reform the Opportunity Zones tax incentive,” Dworkin said.

The LIHTC program, he said, remains “the most effective tool to build and preserve affordable rental housing.” The new bill proposes what Dworkin calls a “meaningful expansion of the credit, incorporating key provisions from the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act designed to increase the supply of rental housing in urban, rural, and tribal communities.”

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) sent a letter on Tuesday to the committee’s leadership, expressing support for the bill’s provisions that expand the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) and extend the temporary standard deduction the bill originally codified.

Other elements of the TCJA the current bill pushes forward includes “retaining mortgage interest deduction and gain on sale provisions,” the MBA said. The trade group also supports the bill’s LIHTC provisions as noted in the letter submitted by Bill Killmer, MBA’s senior vice president for legislative and political affairs.

For the mortgage interest deduction, the NHC noted that its preservation “ensures that millions of American homeowners — especially middle-class families — can continue to build wealth and stability through homeownership,” Dworkin said.

“These provisions reflect the bill’s balanced approach to strengthening our nation’s housing ecosystem by promoting multifamily rental housing development and supporting single-family borrowers.”

The MBA and NHC lauded the continued support of Opportunity Zones through 2033.

But the work on the bill continues. As Congress prepares to enact this element of the president’s agenda, MBA encouraged lawmakers to improve certain provisions.

These include a new limitation for earners in the top 37% tax bracket being capped at 35% for their total itemized deductions. The groups also called a limitation on state and local tax deductions for certain pass-through entities “unduly broad and complex.”

MBA also encourages Congress to swiftly address an increase to the debt ceiling, saying that a failure to do so would “result in permanently higher borrowing costs and a less stable flow of capital during future crises.”

Previously, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) praised several provisions of the proposed legislation. This included increases to the cap for state and local tax (SALT) deductions, preservation of the mortgage interest deduction and enhanced benefits for independent contractors.