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ADA Tax Credits |
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ADA TAX CREDITS -- THE BEST KEPT SECRET By Denny Wood Newspaper reporters for major dailies are quick to quote business men about the Americans with Disabilities Law and the high costs to businesses for making ADA improvements, such as providing disabled parking, ramps to entrances, renovating rest rooms, adding elevators and other improvements, yet never mention that these improvements are almost free to the business owners. These writers love to kick people in disabilities in the teeth with their biased stories. I pointed this out to to the managing news editor of the Miami Herald and the Business News Editor, who both still have failed to run a story about the Internal Revenue Tax Credits available for barrier removal. Unfortunately, the people who run the Miami Herald do not want to acknowledge that about 18% of its readers in Florida are people with disabilities. And they dislike this writer for pointing our their many ADA violations in their Miami Herald building. These editors are the "Cover Up" Team of Metro Dade County. They have yet to publish how Metro Dade County has been sued by people with disabilities. And a whole lot of stories we try to spoon feed editors and writers at the Miami Herald The Tax Credits were available to commercial businesses even before ADA. And a well kept secret even in the early days. Not that they were not printed clearly in the accountants "bible" which is the US Master Tax Guide. Frankly, most accountants are guilty of malpractice for not advising the business owner of these tax credits. The US Congress must have known about lax accountants as they even made the tax credits retroactive for many years! The tax credit information is readily available in sections 1323 and 1338 of the US Master Tax Guide. Interested parties can get more information by calling the IRS Tax Fax Service, 1-703-368-9694 and ask for forms numbered 8826 and 3800. Local Chambers of Commerce should have this information available at their offices, but they generally don't even tell their Business members about these tax credits. It's like they are still fighting off ADA in the halls of the US Congress! Meanwhile Chamber members are being sued with ADA suits every single day! Many Chambers are still in violation of ADA. If Local chambers had ADA compliance as a requirement for membership the membership would be 50-75% less. I personally have been trying to integrate the Perrine, Florida Chamber of Commerce since 1983. Year 2000 has come and it still does not meet the ADA code. The building is owned by, Metro Dade County and we now have them in Federal Court. Building officials citing businesses for access violations should have pamphlets outlining these tax credits, but they don't do it. In fact, its hard to get these Building Officials to get out there and write notices of violations to barriers their Department passed due to both incompetence and indifference. And they should, as they allowed buildings to be built in violation of the Florida State Access Law of 1974. It is unfortunate that the Building Owner always gets clobbered, and not the inept government officials who remain in power and on the job, taking our tax payers money home weekly. We must somehow make building officials who screw up the access laws accountable! Building & Zoning Departments, like ours in Miami Dade County, on a daily basis pass out Certificates of Occupancy like candy for business owners and tenants on commercial sites that are not in ADA compliance. Their object appears to "Get the money", and in doing so immediately set up the business tenant and owner for a Federal Law suit.
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