House Bill No. 601

Introduced By harrington, harper, pavlovich, menahan, shea, ohs, quilici, squires, kottel, lynch



A Bill for an Act entitled: An Act allowing an income tax credit or corporate license tax credit for the preservation of historic buildings; providing that the amount of the credit is 25 percent of the credit allowed under federal income tax laws; and providing an applicability date.



Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Montana:



Section 1.  Credit for preservation of historic buildings. (1) (a) There is allowed as a credit against the taxes imposed by 15-31-101, 15-31-121, and 15-31-122 a percentage of the credit allowed for qualified rehabilitation expenditures, with respect to any certified historic building located in Montana, as provided in 26 U.S.C. 47 or as that section may be renumbered or amended.

(b) The amount of the credit allowed for a tax year is 25% of the amount of the credit determined under 26 U.S.C. 47(a)(2) or as that section may be renumbered or amended.

(2) The credit allowed by this section may not be refunded if the taxpayer has a tax liability less than the amount of the credit. If the sum of credit carryovers from the credit, if any, and the amount of credit allowed by this section for the tax year exceeds the taxpayer's tax liability for the current tax year, the excess attributable to the current tax year's credit is a credit carryover to the 7 succeeding tax years. The entire amount of unused credit must be carried forward to the earliest of the succeeding years, and the oldest available unused credit must be used first.

(3) If the credit under this section is claimed by a small business corporation, as defined in 15-31-201, or a partnership, the credit must be attributed to shareholders or partners, using the same proportion used to report the corporation's or partnership's income or loss for Montana income tax purposes.



Section 2.  Credit for preservation of historic buildings. (1) There is allowed as a credit against the taxes imposed by 15-30-103 a percentage of the credit allowed for qualified rehabilitation expenditures with respect to any certified historic building located in Montana as provided in [section 1].

(2) The credit may not be allocated between spouses unless the property is used by a small business corporation or a partnership in which they are shareholders or partners.



Section 3.  Codification instruction. (1) [Section 1] is intended to be codified as an integral part of Title 15, chapter 31, and the provisions of Title 15, chapter 31, apply to [section 1].

(2) [Section 2] is intended to be codified as an integral part of Title 15, chapter 30, and the provisions of Title 15, chapter 30, apply to [section 2].



Section 4.  Applicability. [Sections 1 and 2] apply to tax years beginning after December 31, 1997.

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