Did you know that you can get tax credits for rehabilitating a historic building, or a non-historic building built before 1936?

What are the rehabilitation tax credits?

Federal tax law offers a 20% tax credit for the rehabilitation of historic buildings, and a 10% tax credit for the rehabilitation of non-historic buildings built before 1936. The credits are dollar-for-dollar reductions of taxes owed. The 20% rehabilitation investment tax credit equals 20% of the amount spent in a certified rehabilitation of a certified historic structure. The 10% rehabilitation investment tax credit equals 10% of the amount spent to rehabilitate a non-historic building built before 1936.

Since 1976, over 30,000 buildings have been preserved using the historic preservation tax credit. This represents an investment of over $30 billion in our nation's historic resources.

The federal historic preservation tax incentives program is administered by the Department of the Interior and the Department of the Treasury. The National Park Service acts on behalf of the Department of the Interior. The Internal Revenue Service acts on behalf of the Department of the Treasury. Certification requests for historic buildings are made to the National Park Service through the appropriate State Historic Preservation Officer.

What Buildings Qualify?

For the 20% credit, a building must be listed in the National Register of Historic Places -OR-be located in a registered historic district and certified as being of historic significance to the district. The "structure" must be a building... not a bridge, ship, railroad car, dam, or any other kind of structure. For the 10% credit, a building must have been built before 1936.

For both credits, the building must be income-producing.

For more information about rehabilitation tax credits, contact the Ohio Historic Preservation Office