Historic Tax Credit Webinar Round-up

The League firmly believes in the power of preservation to revitalize communities and drive sustainable economic growth. This topic has been especially relevant over the last year, as we think about how the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted our state’s economy — and how preservation can be leveraged to help drive its recovery. With that in mind, we organized a six-part webinar series at the beginning of 2021 to explore the topic of “Sparking Recovery Through Preservation.”

Three of the six sessions were Technical Talks, highlighting the benefits of Historic Register Districts, rehabbing instead of replacing historic windows, and researching your historic house. The other three focused on Historic Tax Credits, one of our favorite tools to support restoration and rehabilitation work.

Historic Tax Credits make costly restorations more affordable by reimbursing a percentage of qualified expenses. New Yorkers are especially fortunate because in addition to the Federal Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit for owners of income-producing properties, we also have the NYS Historic Homeowner Tax Credit program and the NYS Historic Commercial Properties Tax Credit. This means that both homeowners and commercial property owners can utilize these credits.

Having access to these tax credits could make owning a historic home or building much more attractive than it might otherwise be, knowing that money you put into it could be reimbursed. And in terms of “sparking recovery,” studies have consistently shown a positive impact. Just looking at the impact of the Federal Rehabilitation Tax Credit on New York State for fiscal year 2019, for example, over 9,500 jobs were created; projects supported over $400M in earned income and over $168M in tax revenue (data pulled from the “Annual Report on the Economic Impact of the Federal Historic Tax Credit for Fiscal Year 2019” published by the National Park Service/Rutgers. We also made a handy infographic of this data, which you can find right here).

Each of these three webinars focus on a slightly different aspect of Historic Tax Credits, but they all touch on the broader positive impact this program, and historic preservation more generally, has on community revitalization. We hope you enjoy these webinars! And if you have questions about Historic Tax Credits that don’t get answered here, this page might have the info you are looking for. Or you could always get in touch. We’re always happy to hear from you.

Homeowner Historic Tax Credit Webinar

On January 13 the League’s Preservation Policy Manager Christina Hingle was joined by Christina Vagvolgyi from the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) to highlight the Homeowner Historic Tax Credit. They focused on the 20% credit available to owners of qualifying residential properties, and how that tax benefit can improve individual homes, with a special focus on the Syracuse area. The League partnered with additional local colleagues Preservation Association of Central New York and the City of Syracuse to present this program.

Commercial Historic Tax Credit Webinar

On February 10, Christina was joined by Julian Adams from SHPO to dive into Commercial Historic Tax Credits. Like the NYS homeowner tax credit, the NYS Commercial Historic Tax Credit covers 20% of eligible rehabilitation expenses. Unlike the homeowner credit, the commercial credit can be combined with the Federal Rehabilitation Tax Credit to provide a total of 40% reimbursement of rehabilitation expenses for qualifying commercial properties. The League partnered with additional local colleagues Historic Albany Foundation and Adirondack Architectural Heritage to present this program.

Homeowner Historic Tax Credit Webinar

On March 10, we presented the final HTC webinar in this series — but don’t worry, there will always be more! With a special focus on the Southern Tier, our Southern Tier Field Consultant Janna Rudler was joined by Frances Stern from SHPO to discuss the NYS Homeowner Historic Tax Credit. If you are a historic homeowner and you are thinking about doing some work on your house, or even considering listing it for sale, this webinar could provide some very helpful information. The League partnered with additional local colleagues Preservation Association of the Southern Tier and Historic Ithaca to present this program.

These webinars were presented in partnership with the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation and the American Planning Association, New York Upstate Chapter. They were funded in part by a grant from the John E. Streb Fund for New York of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, with additional support from the Corning Incorporated Foundation.