CHICAGO: The Association of South Asian Real Estate Professionals (ASARP) held its second annual gathering on December 15 at The Meadows Club inRolling Meadows, a North West suburb of Chicago.
Main purpose of the program, according to Kantbhai Patel, vice president and program co-ordinator, was to discuss new proposed tax reforms and their ramifications explained by reputed legal and industrial professionals for guideline, input, panel discussion, QA sessions and networking. The secondary objective was to provide a forum for interaction among South Asian real estate professionals and the communities that they represent, with some degree and education mixed with entertainment.
The event was attended by a good number of active members, guests and dignitaries including Indian Consul General Ms Neeta Bhushan, Erica Harold, a candidate for State Attorney General office in Illinois, Tim Schneider, Chairman of State’s Republican Party, Dr Sapan Shah Republican candidate for the US Congress for 10th District, Pam Krieter, CEO of the Real Estate profession, Nancy Suvarnamani, Past President of Chicago Association of Realtors, Thomas Krettler, Donna Wilson, Nimesh Jani and Brian Bernardino.
After the lamp lighting ceremony, Pradeep B. Shukla, President ASARP, touched upon past and the revised tax codes. He said, “As we all acknowledge the US tax systems were revised in 1986. After sporadic modifying legislations and lapsed time, it needed massive overhaul and re-organization.
Some of these regulations are regressive. For instance, the US corporate taxes are among the highest in the world, tempting US corporate giants to park the funds outside the country amounting to be in trillions of dollars. Second is the high death tax of 45% at federal level with additional incidence of about 15 to 18% at the state level. With this revision in mind, Trump administration introduced “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017,” he said.
The principal changes center around simplicity and tax reduction while keeping in mind the principle of neutrality.
The bill passed in both houses with minor variations. Now in a proposed reconciled bill, there are some significant provisions that will affect real estate industry like capping property tax deduction to $10,000, restricting mortgage interest deduction to new loans of $500,000 as against current limit of $1 million, reducing marginal tax rates at all the levels of income, 100% write off of some business assets and significant reduction of corporate tax, etc.
“While there is overall tax deduction, what concerns our community as realtors is dilution of Home Ownership Deductions. The stand taken by the National Association of Realtors is that homeowners must be treated fairly, must reverse decline in first-time home buyers as the home ownership level was 50 years low in 2016,” Shukla observed
Shukla then invited expert panelists on stage to discuss their views in all these matters. The Panel Moderator was Al Haroon Hussain, Attorney. The other distinguished panelists included Paul Chawla, Attorney and Brian Bernandoni, Realtor and member of Federal Taxation Committee at NAR and Tom Krettler-Realtor and also Director at NAR.
These panelists addressed tax reforms related to the real estate community and how would these reforms affect the growth of GDP in USA in coming years. A QA session followed.
In his concluding remarks, Pradeep Shukla advised that taxpayers should consider paying their 2017 state and local income taxes in 2017. This will allow the deductions to be preserved and applied against 2017 income. Since the application of the Alternative Minimum Tax might mitigate these benefits, “please discuss your specific situation and any other questions you might have with your accountant,” they advised.
Shukla, in his remarks, pointed out that some of the important tasks undertaken at ASARP are educating our South Asian local real estate professionals on how to serve best interests in our community, all the while keeping in mind the highest degree of professional standards. He also requested members to provide effective outreach to the community, including guidance on EB 5 and other programs available to foreign investors.
In addition he urged them to provide effective liaison to our communities and professionals. He urged educating American real estate professionals dealing with specific needs of our community and finally acting as an effective political arm for ASARP members.
Some middle-class Americans would pay higher taxes under GOP bill, despite Trump’s promise” said Kantibhai Patel, Vice President of Association of South Asian Real-estate Professionals.
He proposed a vote of thanks wherein he expressed gratitude to all who came and all who helped the program make a success. After a sumptuous dinner and cultural program, curtain fell late at night.
Board Members: Al-Haroon Hussain, Babubhai Patel, Bimal Pandhi, Kantibhai Patel, Krishnamohan Kakarlapudi, Marsha Collins, Paul Chawla, Pradeep B Shukla, Rajesh Patel, Sunita Kakarlapudi, Vikram Sarda, Victoria Sampa and Shirin Marvi.
India Post News Service
