Senators Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Doug Jones (D-Ala.) introduced legislation (S. 803) to fix a provision in the 2017 tax-cut law that will allow business owners to receive immediate tax benefits when they retrofit their buildings with fire sprinklers.
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.

The legislation is co-sponsored by Sens. Angus King (I-Maine), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and John Thune (R-S.D.).

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