Tax Reform: Policy Issue
2025 Advocate Priority
Overview
Tax reform typically represents a comprehensive effort by Congress to make changes in the federal tax code, usually to increase economic growth, address inequities in the code, reduce the federal debt or incentivize some type of behavior by business or individuals. More recently, tax reform has been undertaken to head off expiration of beneficial tax provisions enacted on a temporary basis in previous years. Such was the case in 2025.
On July 4, 2025, President Donald Trump signed into law the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA),” legislation that included that latest iteration of comprehensive tax reform. At its core, the legislation extended, in some cases permanently, key provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA). The law also implements several new provisions in tax law that directly benefit housing affordability and the effort to increase housing supply. Finally and importantly, the law did not negatively change several existing tax law provisions that are of critical importance to rental housing providers.
Industry Position
The National Apartment Association (NAA) advocated for a number of critical housing and business provisions in the OBBBA. Our asks of Congress on this legislation fell into the following three categories:
1. Preserve and make permanent critical provisions enacted as part of TCJA:
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Reduced individual income tax rates;
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20-percent qualified business income deduction (Section 199A); and
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Doubled estate-tax exemption.
2. Enact other tax incentives to boost housing supply, including those that would:
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Expand and enhance the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC);
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Support workforce housing;
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Reinvigorate Opportunity Zones to promote the rehabilitation of existing properties; and
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Encourage adaptive reuse of underutilized commercial properties into multifamily housing.
3. Protect current tax law from proposals that would make it more costly to develop, preserve and operate housing units, including those that would:
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Eliminate deferral of taxable gain from like-kind exchanges;
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Tax carried interest as ordinary income;
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Impose the net investment income tax on active income and/or increase the rate;
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Recapture 100-percent of depreciation deductions as ordinary income for real estate; and
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Restrict the deductibility of state and local taxes by pass-through entities.
NAA strongly supported the passage of the OBBBA as nearly all of the requests above were addressed in the legislation. More broadly, rental housing providers view this legislation as a critical piece of the strategy to address the nation’s housing supply imbalance and the larger effort to address housing affordability in the long term.
As an Owner or Operator, How Does this Affect My Business?
For a detailed breakdown of the key housing provisions of the OBBB and how they could affect your business, please contact a member of the NAA Government Affairs team. Additionally, view NAA’s advocacy wins for ongoing updates on our work to be the voice of the rental housing industry.
Contact Information
To learn more about this issue, please contact NAA's Public Policy team.