Tax

Manufacturers risk losing out on several climate and energy tax credits if they don’t act fast—and will miss an opportunity to save millions.

That’s the message from Brian McGoff, president and chief operating officer of Dalrada Corporation—a manufacturing solutions provider focused on sustainability. The Biden administration and Congress have created additional financial incentives for manufacturers that embrace sustainable practices, but these incentives won’t be around forever.

The benefits: Currently, manufacturers can access a wide range of climate and energy-focused tax credits, grants and other benefits, from new programs and funds created through the Inflation Reduction Act to legacy tax credits like the 179D tax deduction—a provision that was expanded recently to offer significantly more value.

• “If you make qualified upgrades or a retrofits to your existing building or facility, the government used to give you a tax credit through 179D that was worth $1.88 per square foot times your tax rate,” said McGoff.
• “Now, it’s $5 per square foot for projects that meet the prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements. T hat’s a direct tax credit—so if you define the project, design it, start implementation and have the proper software to demonstrate the required savings, you can apply.”
• “The lifetime cap on the maximum deduction allowed for a property was replaced with a more favorable three-year cap,” he added. “Companies are allowed to elect an alternative deduction for energy-efficient retrofits in the year the retrofitting plan is certified, to reduce the building’s energy usage intensity by at least 25%.”

How it works: The 179D commercial buildings energy-efficiency tax deduction primarily enables building owners to claim a deduction for installing qualifying systems in buildings, says McGoff.

Read the full story here.
 

The fight to get inflation down to the Federal Reserve’s 2% target “has a long way to go,” Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Wednesday, according to Reuters (subscription).

What’s going on: In testimony before the House Financial Services Committee, Powell said that “‘[i]nflation pressures continue to run high’” and “‘nearly all’ participants expect further rate increases will be appropriate by the end of the year.”

• Last week at its June meeting, the Fed kept the target federal funds rate unchanged at 5.00% to 5.25%, five times higher than it was in March 2022.
• Investors expect the central bank to raise rates next month.

Why it’s important: The Fed’s 10 consecutive interest-rate raises over the past 15 months have not had a large impact on the broader economy.

• “‘We have been seeing the effects of our policy tightening on demand in the most interest-rate-sensitive sectors of the economy,’” Powell said, citing housing as one example.
• “‘It will take time, however, for the full effects of monetary restraint to be realized, especially on inflation,’” he continued.

Manufacturers are becoming increasingly concerned about the unprecedented number of unbalanced, unworkable regulations being handed down by federal agencies, according to the NAM’s Q2 2023 Manufacturers’ Outlook Survey.

• Sixty-five percent reported that if regulatory burdens were reduced, they would purchase more equipment; more than 46% said they would pay their workers more.
• Over sixty-three percent said they spend more than 2,000 hours complying with federal regulations.

Also notable: Other key conclusions from the quarterly analysis, which was conducted from May 18 to June 1, 2023, include:

• Sixty-seven percent of manufacturers reported being positive about their company’s outlook, a decrease of more than 11% since Q1 (74.7%) and the lowest in nearly three years.
• Seventy-five percent of manufacturers polled said comprehensive permitting reform would help their businesses, allowing them to hire more employees, expand their operations and/or boost wages.

Persistent challenges: As they have in the past three surveys, manufacturers this quarter again cited attracting top talent as their number-one workforce challenge (74.4%).

• The next biggest hurdles reported were a weaker U.S. economy (55.7%), rising health care or insurance costs (53.1%), an unfavorable business climate (52.1%), increased raw materials costs (50.8%) and supply chain challenges (44.9%).

The last word: “Congress and the administration have taken bold steps to support manufacturing in the United States,” NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons said.

• “But the positive effects of tax reform, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the CHIPS and Science Act are being undermined by the growing regulatory burden. The unrelenting barrage of regulations threatens to undermine manufacturers’ competitiveness. If the administration’s regulatory onslaught continues, its manufacturing agenda will fail. Unfortunately, we are seeing the signs of exactly that happening.”

House Republicans are taking the first steps toward restoring tax provisions important to manufacturers, according to The Wall Street Journal (subscription).

What’s happening: Legislators are working to get a bill through the House Ways and Means Committee, potentially as soon as this month, though it’s unlikely to ever reach President Biden’s desk. Instead, this effort might ultimately lead to bipartisan negotiations later this year.
 
What’s in it: The bill hasn’t been released yet, but we do know something about tax writers’ intentions.

• The package would “reverse three business-tax increases that took effect over the past few years, aides said. Those changes limited the deductions companies could claim for interest, research costs and capital expenses.”
• Democrats may be willing to negotiate, especially about reinstating immediate expensing for R&D, undoing a 2022 tax change that has forced companies to deduct R&D costs over a period of years and made innovation more costly.

NAM at work: The NAM has been leading the charge to restore immediate R&D expensing, to enable manufacturers to continue financing growth and make permanent a key incentive for capital equipment purchases.

What we’re saying: As NAM Managing Vice President of Tax and Domestic Economic Policy wrote this week to the House Small Business Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Tax and Capital Access:

• “Several harmful tax changes have gone into effect recently that make it more costly to perform research, buy machinery and finance capital investments. If not reversed, these policies will hurt manufacturers’ ability to innovate, create jobs in the United States, invest in their communities and effectively compete in the global economy.”

As part of the NAM’s advocacy campaign, the NAM recently released the Full Expensing Action Center. This action center, which is in addition to the existing R&D and interest deductibility action centers, features a tool enabling manufacturers to send customized messages directly to Congress.
 

Washington, D.C. – The National Association of Manufacturers released its Manufacturers’ Outlook Survey for the second quarter of 2023, which reveals manufacturers’ mounting concerns over the onslaught of unbalanced federal regulations and the threat that poses to sustaining manufacturing investment, job creation and wage growth.

“Congress and the administration have taken bold steps to support manufacturing in the United States. But the positive effects of tax reform, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the CHIPS and Science Act are being undermined by the growing regulatory burden. The unrelenting barrage of regulations threatens to undermine manufacturers’ competitiveness. If the administration’s regulatory onslaught continues, its manufacturing agenda will fail. Unfortunately, we are seeing the signs of exactly that happening,” said NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons.

Currently, the NAM is engaged actively on nearly 100 regulations that have been proposed or announced by 30 different agencies.

Key Survey Findings:

• Only 67% of manufacturers are positive about their own company’s outlook. This is down from 74.7% in Q1, making it the lowest since Q3 2020, and before the pandemic, the lowest since Q3 2019.
• If the regulatory burden on manufacturers decreased, 65% of manufacturers would purchase more capital equipment, and more than 46% would increase compensation.
• More than 63% of manufacturers report spending more than 2,000 hours per year complying with federal regulations.
• If Congress were to enact comprehensive permitting reform, simplifying and speeding up the approval process for new projects, 75.1% of manufacturers say it would be helpful, allowing their company to hire more workers, expand business and/or increase wages and benefits.
• The top challenges facing manufacturers include attracting and retaining a quality workforce (74.4%), weaker domestic economy (55.7%), rising health care/insurance costs (53.1%), unfavorable business climate (52.1%), increased raw material costs (50.8%) and supply chain challenges (44.9%).

You can learn more at the NAM’s online regulatory action center here.

The NAM releases these results to the public each quarter. Further information on the survey is available here.

-NAM-

The National Association of Manufacturers is the largest manufacturing association in the United States, representing small and large manufacturers in every industrial sector and in all 50 states. Manufacturing employs nearly 13 million men and women, contributes $2.90 trillion to the U.S. economy annually and accounts for 55% of private-sector research and development. The NAM is the powerful voice of the manufacturing community and the leading advocate for a policy agenda that helps manufacturers compete in the global economy and create jobs across the United States. For more information about the NAM or to follow us on Twitter and Facebook, please visit www.nam.org

Washington, D.C. – Following an announcement that the White House and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) had reached a deal to avoid default on U.S. debt, National Association of Manufacturers President and CEO Jay Timmons released the following statement:

“Manufacturers congratulate President Biden, Speaker McCarthy and their negotiating teams on reaching an agreement to lift the debt limit. As we have said from the beginning, defaulting on our debt would create economic chaos, harming manufacturing workers and their families and jeopardizing our leadership in the world. Congress should act quickly to pass this agreement and to demonstrate to Americans and to the world the continued strength of our institutions and our democracy.

“Manufacturers have been a leading voice for permitting reform, so we are encouraged that this legislation takes critical steps to improve our broken permitting system, helping us more fully leverage our domestic energy sources and expand manufacturing in the United States. We will work with Congress and the administration to build on this progress and create a comprehensive bipartisan permitting reform package that also helps unlock the full potential of laws meant to encourage the growth of manufacturing in America, such as the historic infrastructure law and the CHIPS and Science Act.

“Once this debate is behind us, our leaders must turn their focus to other policies critical to unleashing manufacturing’s full potential: addressing the crushing regulatory burden facing manufacturers, improving our immigration system and ensuring that our tax code supports manufacturing in America by encouraging investments in innovation and capital equipment.”

-NAM-

The National Association of Manufacturers is the largest manufacturing association in the United States, representing small and large manufacturers in every industrial sector and in all 50 states. Manufacturing employs nearly 13 million men and women, contributes $2.90 trillion to the U.S. economy annually and accounts for 55% of private-sector research and development. The NAM is the powerful voice of the manufacturing community and the leading advocate for a policy agenda that helps manufacturers compete in the global economy and create jobs across the United States. For more information about the NAM or to follow us on Twitter and Facebook, please visit www.nam.org.

Washington, D.C. – Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Sackett vs. Environmental Protection Agency, National Association of Manufacturers Vice President of Energy and Resources Policy Brandon Farris released the following statement:

“The Supreme Court’s decision today will help put us on a path to regulatory certainty for manufacturers across the country as all the justices agreed that the EPA had overstepped its authority under the Clean Water Act. Manufacturers are committed to keeping our waters clean and demonstrating environmental stewardship, but Clean Water Act enforcement has been rife with ambiguities and inconsistencies, often allowing the EPA to overreach and attempt to regulate water—and even dry land—that is far beyond the scope of the law. This case demonstrates yet again why manufacturers and our economy need a sensible Waters of the United States proposal that provides clarity and certainty and allows the industry to continue leading the way on environmental protection. The EPA should heed the court’s ruling and revise its latest WOTUS proposal.”

Background:

Previously, the NAM submitted multiple sets of comments regarding the 2015 WOTUS rule to better inform policymakers. In addition, the NAM supported the 2017 executive order instructing the EPA to rescind the rule, and the NAM Legal Center had been in active litigation against the rule starting in 2015. The legal battle included a unanimous victory for the NAM at the U.S. Supreme Court on a key procedural issue, and in 2019, federal judges invalidated the rule.

-NAM-

The National Association of Manufacturers is the largest manufacturing association in the United States, representing small and large manufacturers in every industrial sector and in all 50 states. Manufacturing employs nearly 13 million men and women, contributes $2.90 trillion to the U.S. economy annually and accounts for 55% of private-sector research and development. The NAM is the powerful voice of the manufacturing community and the leading advocate for a policy agenda that helps manufacturers compete in the global economy and create jobs across the United States. For more information about the NAM or to follow us on Twitter and Facebook, please visit www.nam.org.

It’s been more than two years since the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill expired—and the lack of renewal is harming manufacturers in the U.S.

What’s going on: Manufacturers have been operating without an MTB—legislation that temporarily eliminates or reduces tariffs on products not available in the U.S.—since January 2021, when MTB legislation that had been passed in 2018 expired.

• The MTB is typically renewed every few years. In June 2021, the Senate passed an MTB measure as part of the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, and the House passed a different version in the America COMPETES Act, but Congress did not agree to trade provisions in the final China competition legislation.
• No MTB legislation has been introduced during this Congress in either chamber.

Why it’s important: The result of this inaction has been a direct economic hit to manufacturers, particularly small and medium-sized manufacturers that are paying more for product inputs.

• Since the MTB expired in December 2020, manufacturers and other businesses have paid more than $1 billion—or $1.3 million per day—in anticompetitive tariffs for goods they cannot source in the U.S., according to an NAM analysis.
• The added costs can create higher prices for consumers, making it harder for American families to buy goods from manufacturers in the U.S.
• Due in part to these tariffs, some manufacturers are having difficulty maintaining current staffing levels and expanding opportunities for existing workers.

Hurting the heartland—and Ukraine: Sukup Manufacturing Co., headquartered in Sheffield, Iowa, is a family-owned and -operated manufacturer of grain-storage and grain-handling products. It is paying tens of thousands of dollars in tariffs to import components from the Kyiv province of Ukraine.

• In 2022, the company paid nearly $40,000 in tariffs on imports from Ukraine.
• Ukraine’s export market is essential to its economic development as well as its ability to withstand Russia’s invasion. The lack of an MTB is creating barriers between companies in the U.S. and their Ukrainian partners at exactly the wrong time.

Hurting a local economy: For Element Electronics, the last remaining U.S. producer of LCD TVs, the absence of an MTB has created a highly uneven playing field—which has led to layoffs of employees at the Winnsboro, South Carolina, facility.

• Mexican producers of LCD TVs buy the same LCD panels as Element but are allowed to import them duty-free. They are then able to export the finished TVs to the U.S. duty-free, too, putting Element at an unfair disadvantage.
• Restoring the MTB would allow the company to compete fairly and return to full production and employment.

Creating jobs overseas instead of in the U.S.: Glen Raven, a 143-year-old global fabric manufacturer based in Burlington, North Carolina, uses the MTB for duty-free access to raw materials that haven’t been made in the U.S. in decades. When the previous MTB expired, the company was compelled to invest in operations outside of the U.S.

• During the pandemic, the business created more than 200 jobs, but because of the tariffs, it could not afford to locate the positions in the U.S. and instead expanded operations in Europe and elsewhere.
• “While we are committed to job creation and investment in the U.S., if we are unable to be competitive in this environment, we have a responsibility to invest where we have the greatest opportunity to achieve our growth objectives,” said Glen Raven President and CEO Leib Oehmig.

Losing customers: The family-owned Nation Ford Chemical, another South Carolina manufacturer, makes products used every day by the U.S. military. The absence of an MTB has cost the small company customers and is jeopardizing some of its 80 jobs.

• In 2022, to make just one of its products—a jet-engine lubricant additive called PANA—the Fort Mill–based company spent almost $500,000 on duties alone.
• Tariffs have cost NFC so dearly that it may soon be forced to close the smoke-dye component of its business. If it does, the company would have to lay off up to 10 workers, and the U.S. military would have to source the product from foreign markets.

Costing taxpayers: ICF Mercantile, a manufacturer based in New Jersey, purchases raw materials that are not available in the U.S. for products it sells to NASA and the Defense Department.

• The company is forced to pass the cost of the 10% tariff on to its government customers, which ultimately increases costs for American taxpayers.

What we’re doing: The NAM continues to lead the business community in urging Congress to pass the MTB.

• “If Congress is serious about supporting manufacturers and workers in the United States, they must prioritize the passage of the MTB as soon as possible this year,” said NAM Director of Trade Facilitation Policy Ali Aafedt.

It’s been more than two years since the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill expired—and the lack of renewal is harming manufacturers in the U.S.

What’s going on: Manufacturers have been operating without an MTB—legislation that temporarily eliminates or reduces tariffs on products not available in the U.S.—since January 2021, when MTB legislation that had been passed in 2018 expired.

• The MTB is renewed typically every few years. In June 2021, the Senate passed an MTB measure as part of the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, and the House passed a different version in the America COMPETES Act,  but Congress did not agree to trade provisions in the final China competition legislation.
• No MTB legislation has been introduced during this Congress in either chamber.

Why it’s important: The result of this inaction has been a direct economic hit to manufacturers, particularly small and medium-sized manufacturers that are paying more for product inputs.

• Since the MTB expired in December 2020, manufacturers and other businesses have paid more than $1 billion—or $1.3 million per day—in anticompetitive tariffs for goods they cannot source in the U.S., according to an NAM analysis
• The added costs can create higher prices for consumers, making it harder for American families to buy goods from manufacturers in the U.S.
• Due in part to these tariffs, some manufacturers are having difficulty maintaining current staffing levels and expanding opportunities for existing workers.

Hurting the heartland—and Ukraine: Sukup Manufacturing Co., headquartered in Sheffield, Iowa, is a family-owned and -operated manufacturer of grain-storage and grain-handling products. It is paying tens of thousands of dollars in tariffs to import components from the Kyiv province of Ukraine.

• In 2022, the company paid nearly $40,000 in tariffs on imports from Ukraine.
• Ukraine’s export market is essential to its economic development as well as its ability to withstand Russia’s invasion. The lack of an MTB is creating barriers between companies in the U.S. and their Ukrainian partners at exactly the wrong time.

Read the full story here.

Washington, D.C. – Today, the National Association of Manufacturers and Make UK hosted a meeting at NAM headquarters where they formalized manufacturers’ commitment to supporting close economic ties between the United States and United Kingdom. Make UK CEO Stephen Phipson and NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons signed an updated memorandum of understanding, which will serve as a roadmap to the cooperation between the two organizations and outlines the key goals and objectives for the partnership.

“The NAM and Make UK have such a strong, special relationship, just as the U.S. and the UK do, and we must continue to deepen that partnership and the commercial and economic ties between our countries,” said Timmons. “Cooperation between American and British companies not only makes our economies stronger, but also strengthens the transatlantic strategic alliances to support the rule of law, freedom and opportunity from those who threaten our shared values. Especially with Russia’s continued assault on Ukraine, it is critical that we unleash the power of commerce to preserve, protect and expand democracy.”

The MOU calls for Make UK and the NAM to work together to provide opportunities for their members to strengthen manufacturing through a number of avenues, including exploring potential trade delegations, trade fairs and business networks; facilitating visits and economic delegations between representatives of the two organizations for promoting trade, investment and commercial exchanges among member companies and organizations; and working together on joint meetings, conferences, seminars, reports, letters and mutually agreed advocacy on trade and investment-related issues.

“Make UK is delighted to have further strengthened our partnership agreement with our American counterpart, the National Association of Manufacturers, as we focus increasingly on boosting cross-Atlantic trade,” said Phipson. “In recent months, we have agreed to a process of even broader sharing of market intelligence, data and policy work, facilitating visits for economic delegations to visit on both sides of the Atlantic to unlock new trading opportunities.

“We will continue to work ever more closely as we look to cement commercial exchanges and opportunities for shared promotion as we build on the ties that have connected our two nations for generations. Relations with the U.S. are vital, and its market is the second-most important for UK goods. In a post-Brexit world, it is likely to assume ever greater importance as part of our efforts to boost global trade.”

Click here to view the full text of the MOU.

-NAM-

The National Association of Manufacturers is the largest manufacturing association in the United States, representing small and large manufacturers in every industrial sector and in all 50 states. Manufacturing employs nearly 13 million men and women, contributes $2.90 trillion to the U.S. economy annually and accounts for 55% of private-sector research and development. The NAM is the powerful voice of the manufacturing community and the leading advocate for a policy agenda that helps manufacturers compete in the global economy and create jobs across the United States. For more information about the NAM or to follow us on Twitter and Facebook, please visit www.nam.org.