On December 18, 2015, Congress passed and President Obama signed HR 2029, “Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2015.” Included in the legislation is a provision that reinstated the Energy-Efficient Commercial Buildings Deduction, or section 179D of the tax code, (which had expired on December 31, 2014) for 2015 and through December 31, 2016.
There was no change to the $1.80 per square foot ($0.60 per system) deduction. The extension did change the referenced ASHRAE standard for projects placed in service after December 31, 2015, which are detailed here.
In April 2013, Facility Executive (then Today’s Facility Manager) published an article on commercial lighting trends that included a survey of EPAct 2005 Commercial Building Tax Deduction (CBTD). This deduction, which was extended in 2008 through 2013, provides for up to 60ยข per square foot savings for lighting upgrades performed during the years 2006 through 2013.
Of the 190 respondents to this question in 2013 (see chart below), 16.8% were planning to take advantage of CBTD, while another 6.3% had already taken advantage of the tax deduction. Conversely, 43.1% of facility executives said they were not planning to take advantage of CBTD, and another 33.6% indicated they did not know about the tax deduction.
Therefore, a little under a quarter of respondents had already taken advantage of the deduction or were planning to do so, and the remaining 75%+ of respondents were not going to use CBTD or did not know it existed.
Has this scenario changed since 2013? Please take a moment to respond to this week’s poll, and share additional comments below.
[poll id=2]
