Helping others protect, preserve, and rehabilitate their historic buildings is something that Amber Anderson, Historic Tax Credit Coordinator for the State Historic Preservation (SHPO), is passionate about.
When Amber started her job in 2018, she noticed a few oddities in her state program’s legal language. Utah’s Historic Preservation Tax Credit for residential properties is accounted for in code, administrative rule, and tax rule. And little about state code or rule had changed since the program’s start in 1993. Contradictions existed between the code and the rules, between the rules and the rules, and between what was legally written and what had been practiced over the previous 25 years. As you can imagine, these types of contradictions are not good for the program or the applicant!
The State Historic Tax Credit program provides an income tax credit equivalent to 20% of an approved residential project’s qualified costs. This lowers an applicant’s tax liability in a more substantial and direct way than the better known “deduction.” Having access to this financial incentive enables property owners to undertake rehabilitation work that they might not have been able to afford otherwise, safeguarding our state’s tangible heritage. It also drives economic activity, encouraging developers to invest in our communities by converting warehouses into apartments and houses into restaurants, often through pairing the state credit with a similar Federal one (reserved for income-producing properties). The state program alone has incentivized 3,321 projects equaling nearly $680 million invested into historic properties since 1993.
Process
The first step in correcting the abovementioned issues, however, was to start making sure the day-to-day operations followed what was legally required by law, even if it wasn’t the intent of the original drafters. For those of you who began pursuing state historic tax credits before 2018, you may remember this fun and slightly painful transition.
Once the process matched the existing law, the next step was to outline the inconsistencies between legal regulations and how the program should function, identify any implications, and find solutions. Amber met with SHPO’s Assistant Attorney General in 2020 to discuss the issues and many of the solutions identified came down to amending the State Tax Commission’s (STC) rule.
Discussions with the STC identified that some of the issues, such as how the program’s TC-40H tax form was structured and used, could be handled internally without formal action. By the end of 2023 this form had been updated (a few times) to better match the program’s requirements as well as modern technology. Additional issues, however, needed to be addressed via formal rule amendment.
A Solution
In January 2025, the STC hired someone to handle requests like this. Between the end of the 2025 legislative session and August, SHPO and the STC worked together to create an amended rule that addressed all of the concerns and both clarified and simplified the way the program was allowed to function. This amendment was approved by the STC and went into effect on January 1st, 2026.
While the new rule looks quite different from the old, the fundamental purpose and requirements of the program did not change. Most of the differences include updates based on modern rule mechanics/best practices, clarifications on external legal processes, an updated division name, and other important but perhaps less exciting issues.
What This Means for Applicants
Users of the program will rejoice, however, in one significant change. An oddity of the previous rule was the requirement that an applicant submit (and have approved) their “after” application, known as the Part 3, by the end of the year for which they hoped to claim the credit. For example, if an applicant wanted to claim a credit in the same year as the work, they would have had to submit all paperwork by December 1st in order to allow the SHPO enough time to review and approve before the end of that year. Amber routinely worked with applicants right up until the end of the year to make sure no one was left hanging, but the whole issue created stress on both applicants and SHPO staff alike, while also preventing applicants from doing any meaningful rehabilitation work during the month of December. It simply didn’t make practical sense. The revised rule, however, allows applicants to submit their Part 3 “after” application after the first of the year (so long as it provides the SHPO with ample time to review before the applicant needs to file their taxes). (Note: The Part 3 application should only include work that occurred by the end of the year for which the applicant is hoping to claim the credit. You cannot claim work done in one year on a former year’s taxes.)
Nearly eight years after identifying the issues and nearly six years of steadily working towards a better solution, this rule change improves the legal functioning of the program while supporting more flexible rehabilitation projects with the goal of helping protect Utah’s unique architectural and historic fabric. And as for Amber and SHPO? Don’t worry, they’re already working on special events to help the people of Utah better understand and make use of this and other historic preservation programs. Up next is a continuing education course for real estate agents explaining the ins and outs of the National Register of Historic Places and historic tax credits, followed by a Regional SHPO Hub in Logan which will teach attendees about the various State programs available to help document and protect our shared cultural heritage.
