UPFRONT: HITS & MISSES
APARTMENT FINANCE TODAY • FEBRUARY 2008
New Law Targets Meth Labs
President Bush has signed a bill
that directs the National Academy
of Sciences to prepare a report on
the health effects posed by former
methamphetamine labs on “the residents
of buildings where such laboratories
are, or were, located, with
particular emphasis given to biological
impacts on children” and calls
for research to develop rapid detection
kits to identify meth labs. The
new law also requires the
Environmental Protection Agency to
set guidelines for federal aid to
state and local authorities charged
with cleaning up former meth lab
sites.
Taxation of Carried Interest
Proposal Rejected
The National Multi Housing
Council is calling it the most significant
legislative victory in the multifamily
industry in 2007. The council,
the National Apartment Association,
and other real estate organizations
were lobbying Congress not to
change the tax treatment of carried
interest or the “promote” received
by a general partner. Congress had
considered taxing carried interest,
or the share of profits allocated to
the general partner, as ordinary
income rather than at the lower
capital gain tax rate. Such a change
could have raised taxes on carried
interest by up to 133 percent. The
U.S. House of Representatives had
voted in favor of the change last
November as a way to pay for a
one-year “hold harmless” patch for
the alternative minimum tax (AMT).
Senate Republicans refused to pass
AMT legislation that included any
tax increases to offset the AMT
relief, so the carried interest provision
was stripped from the final
AMT bill.
|
