MBA Mortgage Action Alliance Call to Action on Preserving Tax Policies in Infrastructure Plan

The Senate this week passed a massive infrastructure package. How to pay for it remains a sticking point; the Mortgage Bankers Association’s grassroots advocacy arm, the Mortgage Action Alliance, wants to make sure lawmakers preserve key tax provisions that enable the real estate finance industry to support their customers.

Congress—both the U.S. House and Senate—has begun to shift its focus to crafting of the actual tax provisions that will offset the cost of the President’s broad infrastructure package,” said MBA Senior Vice President of Legislative and Political Affairs Bill Killmer. “As a result, it is critical that our industry weighs in NOW with lawmakers to urge the appropriate balance in of any new provisions – to help preserve tax policies that are paramount to our industry – and the customers and end users you serve.”

In a Call to Action issued this week, MAA asked its members contact their senators and representatives to urge them to preserve industry tax priorities to support real estate investment and homeownership during budget reconciliation and tax negotiations.

Earlier this year, MBA Chair Susan Stewart convened a task force of diverse MBA members to study and shape MBA’s tax policy and advocacy efforts. With input from that task force, MBA has taken the following positions on key tax provisions because of the corresponding implications they would have on our industry:

•           Minimum Book Tax & Mortgage Servicing Rights: Maintain the deferred tax treatment of income related to mortgage servicing rights;

•           Section 199A Pass-Through Deduction: Oppose any efforts to reduce or repeal the 20-percent deduction for qualified business income (QBI) under Section 199A;

•           Increase in Capital Gains Rate: Maintain that capital gains continue to receive tax treatment that is distinct from ordinary income, which serves as a key stimulant to investment in a variety of capital-intensive industries, especially real estate;

•           Tax Treatment of Gain on Sale of Home: Maintain the current law provision, but if the current tax code must change, allow homeowners to continue to exclude a portion of the gains on the sale of a home;

•           Housing Access/Affordability Provisions: Support legislative proposals that reduce down payment barriers for first-time, first-generation, and minority homebuyers, and support tax credit programs that increase affordable housing supply and benefit individual buyers and the housing market, such as the proposed Neighborhood Home Investment Tax Credit, a proposed Middle Income Housing Tax Credit (MIHTC), and expanding and enhancing the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program.

For more on each of these positions, click here.

For more information on the Call to Action and to join MAA, click here.