Urge Congress to Save Historic Tax Credit and Oppose Taxes on Graduate Education!

December 5, 2017—Both houses of Congress have now passed versions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.  A House-Senate conference committee now must reconcile the differences between the two bills. Urgent action is needed on two major issues that will affect archivists and archives!

Preserve the Historic Tax Credit

After nearly forty years of demonstrated success, the federal Historic Tax Credit (HTC) was eliminated in the tax reform bill recently passed by the House of Representatives. The Senate-passed version of the bill includes a restored 20 percent historic tax credit (HTC) payable over five years. Contact Congress NOW in support of the HTC!

A House-Senate conference committee will need to reconcile the differences between the tax bills passed by each chamber. There is tremendous pressure on the Republican leadership in Congress to get the final bill passed before Christmas. We expect House-Senate conferees will be selected quickly and negotiations on the final conference report will be on a fast track.

Our colleagues at the National Trust for Historic Preservation have an online advocacy center where you learn more about the issue and send messages to your Members of Congress in support of the Historic Tax Credit.

Further details about how the tax credit works can be found on the National Park Service's website.

Protect Graduate Students from Tax on Tuition Waivers

The House version of the tax bill contains a provision that would make tuition waivers for graduate students subject to income tax, significantly increasing the tax liability of hundreds of thousands of graduate students. The Senate bill does not include that section. It is imperative that we urge Members of Congress to reject the House provision in the final bill.

Our colleagues at the National Humanities Alliance have issued a legislative alert concerning graduate student tuition waivers. Please click here to take action via their online advocacy center and encourage others to do so via social media. They have activated patch-thru calling in addition to automated email messages.

This is now a high-profile issue, with coverage in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Vox. Although we expect the conference committee to play an outsized role in the negotiations, it is important that as many legislators as possible hear from their constituents on this issue.

Please—take action today!