Heating, Air-conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI) has announced its endorsement of H.R. 3515, the HVAC Expensing and Technology (HEAT) Act introduced by Reps. Pat Tiberi, R-Ohio, and Ron Kind, D-Wis. The HEAT Act would allow for commercial building owners to expense qualified HVACR equipment under Section 179 business expensing.

With a Democrat and Republican co-sponsoring this bill, there is an opportunity for bipartisan support to carry it through the legislative process. The bipartisan 2015 PATH Act signed by President Obama expanded and made permanent Section 179 expensing and removed an exclusion which prohibited the expensing of HVACR products, but there were classification issues with the IRS that prevented the provision for expensing HVACR units from taking effect. The HEAT Act would fix this discrepancy and allow small businesses to invest the capital necessary to bring down their utility costs and energy consumption.

 “This issue was the top priority for HARDI at our Congressional Fly-in in May, and we are excited to see this tangible progress in solving this problem for small businesses across the country,” said HARDI CEO Talbot Gee. ““The HEAT Act fixes the HVACR discrepancy with the IRS, and can be seen as a technical correction that both sides of the aisle can get behind.”

“This legislation is good not just for the HVACR industry, but for small businesses in general,” said HARDI President Tom Roberts of cfm Distributors. “Reps. Tiberi and Kind have been working together with us on this bill, so we extend our gratitude for their leadership on this issue and are enthusiastic about this start of the policy-making process and the path forward to making the HEAT Act law.”