Improvements in REIT Tax Laws on the Table

WASHINGTON, DC-The National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts has come out in support of the REIT Improvement Act of 2003, which was introduced in the US House of Representatives earlier this week. The legislation, H.R. 1890, is designed to make positive alterations to existing REIT tax regulations. Rep. Jim McCrery and Rep. Ben Cardin, both members of the House Ways and Means Committee, are the sponsors behind the bipartisan-supported act, which is more commonly referred to as RIA.

“The principal goals of the REIT Improvement Act are to clarify and correct some issues surrounding the REIT Modernization Act of 1999, to eliminate a discriminatory barrier to foreign investment in publicly-traded US REITs and to provide the Internal Revenue Service with the ability to impose monetary penalties for reasonable cause violations of REIT tests in lieu of the loss of REIT status,” explains NAREIT president and CEO Steven A. Wechsler.