When building green works
to your (tax) advantage
By KATHERINE FESER, Houston Chronicle
JULY 10, 2015
Houston-based alliantgroup, a national tax consulting firm specializing in
energy-efficient buildings, moved its headquarters to one of the city's greenest
office buildings a year-and-a-half ago.
The brand new, 20-story namesake building at 3009 Post Oak Blvd. is among 15
Houston projects, including five commercial interior spaces, to attain LEED
Platinum certification by the U.S. Green Building Council. The building, which was
designed by Kirksey Architecture, was recently showcased as a model of
sustainability at the Rice Design Alliance's annual meeting.
In a light-soaked space on the top four floors, some 450 of alliantgroup's 600
employees work on the tax bills of America's small and middle-market companies.
Since its 2001 founding, the firm has assisted more than 15,000 businesses claim
in excess of $3 billion in tax incentives from offices across the U.S.
Top cities for green
buildings
Based on square footage
of LEED-certified space:
1. Chicago: 135.6 million
2. New York: 155.8 million
3. Houston: 115.4 million
4. Washington, D.C.: 112.2
million
Source: U.S. Green
Building Council
Senior Managing Director Jeremy Fingeret spoke recently with the Chronicle
about the business. Edited excerpts follow.
Q: Tell me about your company.
A: We are the largest provider of 179D, which is the Energy-Efficient Commercial
Buildings Deduction, in the United States. If you have an energy-efficient building,
it takes a licensed professional engineer to come and certify that it's energy
efficient. Then you can get a federal tax deduction. We work with a lot of
architects and engineers and construction companies.
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Jeremy Fingeret, Senior Managing Director of Houston-based alliantgroup at the company's headquarters, Wednesday July 8. 2015.
alliantgroup's building opened in January of 2014 and they occupy the top floors, 17 through 20, and are in the process of building out
the 16th floor with a gym. alliantgroup helps small to mid-size businesses take advantage of tax incentives such as the 179D tax deduction
for energy-efficient buildings.
Q: How did alliantgroup get into this?
A: The R&D Tax Credit has been around since 1981. For years and years, it was the
Fortune 1000 companies that were taking advantage of this benefit. We started
by bringing these credits to small and mid-size businesses.
Q: What is the most common tax credit?
A: The largest in the IRS code is the R&D Tax Credit.
Q: What's an example?
A: The design of energy-efficient buildings, creating cutting-edge technologies
that will help reduce energy dependence.
Q: What drives the incentives?
A: The whole reason you have things like 179D is because commercial buildings
soak up about 20 percent of the energy in this country. If you can create great
LEED designs, you will take a lot of pressure off the U.S. infrastructure that has
to supply all the power to these buildings and to the grid. It is very important
looking down the road ahead for energy-efficient buildings to be more prevalent
in our skylines.
R&D Tax Credit (IRS
Section 41)
Established: 1981 by
Congress
What: Rewards
investments businesses
make in a new or improved
product, process, formula,
invention, software or
technique
Who qualifies:
Manufacturing,
construction, engineering,
software, architecture and
other firms
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As one of the few LEED Platinum buildings in Houston, their offices showcase the latest in energy efficiency and design as a nice work
environment for employees. Floor-to-ceiling windows, coated with a film to keep the heat out and the cool air in, allow natural light for
workers to enjoy. The offices are in the middle of the building so everyone has access to the natural light. LEED is the U.S. Green Building
Council's certification for green buildings and stands for "Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design." (Billy Smith II / Houston Chronicle)
Q: Who is eligible for the 179D deduction?
A: It is for any building owner of a commercial building. If the owner of the building
was not a government entity, they would take that deduction themselves. If the
building owner is the government, they can assign that deduction over to the
designers.
Energy-Efficient
Commercial Building
Deduction (IRS Section
179D)
Q: Can you give an example?
Established: 2005 as part
of the Energy Policy Act
A: If you designed an energy-efficient post office with 100,000 square feet, since
it's a government building, the post office could allocate that deduction to our
clients, an architect, at $1.80 per square foot. They could get a $180,000
deduction on their taxes.
What: Tax deduction for
new construction or the
retrofitting of
energy-efficient
commercial buildings
Q: Is the tax benefit available for existing buildings?
Who qualifies: Building
owners, architects,
engineers and contractors
A: It can deal with retrofits. The deduction is up to $1.80 per square foot of a
building. It would be a one-time tax deduction.
Source: alliantgroup
Q: What's your new headquarters like?
A: There are floor-to-ceiling windows all around the entire building. The amount of
light that comes into the space is awesome. We've designed it in a way that it's a
very open floorplan for our folks.
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Q: What makes it LEED platinum?
A: Efficient air flow and handling systems. The building envelope is made in double-pane glass with films on it
to help keep heat out and keep coolness in. Building our building with floor-to-ceiling glass, it's a very healthy
environment. It's helped us attract a lot of talent here as we've continued to grow. We're in the middle of a
huge recruiting effort to bring on 85 new professionals.
Q: How much of the building do you occupy?
A: We currently occupy the top four floors, 17 through 20. We're in the process of building out the 16th floor.
Q: Do other companies do what you do?
A: There are accounting firms that try to do what we do. Typically they have CPAs that deliver these services.
Our model is very different. We have a lot of tax attorneys mixed with engineers, chemists, biologists and
PhDs. We combine tax and technical knowledge. We bring together the technical professional along with a
wealth of tax knowledge to our clients.
Jeremy M. Fingeret is Senior Managing Director of Operations and Tax Controversy Services for alliantgroup. He is
an experienced litigation attorney, having handled cases in multiple state and federal courts. Jeremy is licensed to
practice law in the state of Texas, the United States Tax Court, the Court of Federal Claims, the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the Fifth Circuit and numerous federal district courts. Jeremy is also an experienced corporate transactional
attorney. Prior to joining alliantgroup, Jeremy practiced law at a prominent litigation law firm in Houston.
SOURCE: http://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/real-estate/article/When-building-green-works-to-your-taxadvantage-6377785.php?t=bf3998bf9a3b9e5e12&cmpid=email-premium#photo-8288614
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