NAIOP: Tax Reform Is Here

Excerpt from NAIOP: After many years of elected officials talking about our “broken tax code,” and fits and starts through several different congresses and presidential administrations, a comprehensive rewrite of our tax code is about to be enacted into law. The Senate followed the example of the House of Representatives and passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, a massive tax reform package that is the biggest reform since passage of the Tax Reform Act of 1986. To put things in historical perspective, House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, one of the leading advocates for tax reform in Congress, was in high school when the last tax code overhaul was enacted. President Donald Trump has said he would sign the legislation. The process and votes thus far have been a purely partisan exercise, and the rhetoric on both sides has been heated and often times misleading. Time will be the true judge of whether this tax code will spur economic growth and job creation, as its supporters believe. NAIOP’s guiding principle on this long road to tax reform has been to ensure that the resulting tax paradigm treat our industry fairly, and that our members not be disadvantaged in the marketplace compared to other industries. As is often said in Washington, “if you are not at the table, you are on the menu.” We were determined to be at the table. There would not be a repeat of the unintended consequences of the 1986 Tax Reform Act, which was disastrous for the commercial real estate industry. Click here to read rest of the article.