Tax credits for historic buildings now transferable—and worth more.
S. 1459 — Historic Tax Credit Growth and Opportunity Act of 2025 · Filed by Bill Cassidy (R-LA) · 13 cosponsors · Introduced Apr 10, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill expands the federal historic rehabilitation tax credit, which allows property owners to deduct a percentage of costs spent restoring historic buildings. It raises the standard credit from 20% to 20% (no change in the base rate, but allows full credit in the year placed in service), creates a new 30% credit for small projects under $3.75M ($5M in rural areas) with transferability, lowers the threshold for eligible buildings, eliminates a basis-adjustment penalty, and narrows tax-exempt-use restrictions. The primary beneficiaries are real-estate developers, historic preservation investors, and property owners undertaking rehabilitation projects.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is expanding and liberalizing the historic rehabilitation tax credit—increasing percentages, allowing transfers, and broadening eligibility. This is a targeted tax incentive for a specific sector (historic real-estate development), not a broad public program.
What the text implies
- Credit transferability (§3(e)(1)(C)) allows investors to monetize tax credits by selling them to unrelated parties, potentially creating a secondary market in tax credits that benefits financial intermediaries and large institutional investors more than small property owners.
- The 30% credit for small projects (§3(e)(1)(B)) combined with the $3.75M/$5M expenditure cap may incentivize developers to structure projects to stay under the cap and claim the higher rate, potentially fragmenting larger historic properties into smaller tax-credit-eligible units.
- Elimination of basis adjustment (§5) increases the total tax benefit by allowing both the credit AND the full depreciation deduction, effectively doubling the subsidy for rehabilitation projects.
- Narrowing of tax-exempt-use restrictions (§6) allows tax-exempt entities (nonprofits, universities) to claim credits on leased historic properties, expanding the credit's reach beyond for-profit developers.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill preserves and incentivizes restoration of historic buildings, which provides public cultural and community benefits. However, the primary financial beneficiaries are real-estate investors and developers who capture substantial tax credits; the public benefit is indirect and depends on whether preserved properties serve community interests or become luxury developments.
Who stands to gain
- real-estate developers and investors
- historic preservation companies
- property owners undertaking rehabilitation
- tax-credit trading intermediaries
- nonprofit organizations and universities (under §6 modifications)
Named in the bill
Internal Revenue Code §47 (rehabilitation credit), Internal Revenue Code §50 (basis adjustment), Internal Revenue Code §168(h) (tax-exempt use property), Internal Revenue Code §6418 (credit transfer rules), Bureau of the Census (rural area definition)
Where it stands
13 cosponsors: 6 Democrats, 6 Republicans, 1 Independents.
- Apr 10, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Apr 10, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Finance · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
8 lobbying clients named this bill on 10 disclosure filings across 3 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $350,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 4 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 88% of bills with at least one filing.
Bill Cassidy, the sponsor, reported $1,329,254 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Historic Tax Credit Coalition — $140,000 on 2 filings
- Up for Growth Action Inc — $90,000 on 2 filings
- Historic Tax Credit Coalition — $50,000 on 1 filing
- National Trust for Historic Preservation — $30,000 on 1 filing
- City of Columbia — $20,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 21, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (6,692 characters) on Apr 14, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 21, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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