This Week in D.C.

Each year, roofing professionals meet with members of Congress on Capitol Hill to discuss the critical issues facing their companies and the roofing industry. And you know what? We’re making a big difference. So far, we have increased funding for career and technical education, advanced legislation that addresses workforce development needs and secured a strong buildings component in bipartisan infrastructure legislation.

But our work is not done yet. We are just getting started. Join us for Roofing Day in D.C. April 18-19 and help us make it the biggest and best roofing industry advocacy event ever! After you sign up, click on the link to invite a friend from your confirmation email and you could win a $500 Amazon gift card!

Registration is only $95 for company representatives and $35 for field workers, students and spouses. Please visit nrca.net/roofingday to view testimonials from last year’s event and learn more. Sign up today!

On Jan. 9, the House passed H.R. 23, the Family and Small Business Taxpayer Protection Act, which defunds expanded IRS enforcement efforts while retaining funding for the IRS to focus on improving taxpayer services and modernizing operations to serve taxpayers. NRCA joined with other business associations supporting this legislation to ensure IRS focuses its scant resources on taxpayer services—not unnecessary pursuits. 

The letter stated “before considering how to penalize taxpayers, the agency should address the immense backlog facing the agency and how to better assist taxpayers with compliance. In late August 2022, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) detailed how the IRS’s processing delays have prevented businesses from receiving key pandemic relief benefits. More specifically, the IRS did not begin processing claims for qualified Sick and Family Leave Credits and Employee Retention Credit for 12 months. As of December 23, 2022, the IRS reported the agency still has 1.91 million unprocessed individual returns to process.”

In late 2022, the IRS released the tax year 2023 annual inflation adjustments for more than 60 tax provisions, including adjustments for Section 179 expensing for nonresidential roofs. Revenue Procedure 2022-38 provides details about these annual adjustments. After passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, section 179 allows qualifying taxpayers to immediately expense the cost of qualifying property rather than recovering such costs over multiple years through depreciation. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act significantly expanded the expensing limits under Section 179, with the maximum amount a business may expense for 2023 set at $1.16 million and the phase-out threshold increasing to $2.89 million. This is a significant increase because the maximum amounts were indexed to inflation in the original law. 

On Jan. 5, the Federal Trade Commission issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that generally would prohibit the use of noncompete agreements by employers. The agency argues such clauses in employment contracts constitute an unfair method of competition and therefore violate Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act. If adopted, the proposed rule would make it illegal for an employer to enter into a noncompete agreement with an employee; maintain an existing noncompete with an employee; or represent to an employee, under certain circumstances, that the employee is subject to a noncompete. It would apply to certain independent contractors, as well as employees, and would require employers to rescind existing noncompete agreements and inform employees such agreements are no longer in effect.  

The Federal Trade Commission is accepting public comments regarding the proposed rule through March 10, and legal challenges are expected for any final rule.  

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