ECORA Act of 2021

II 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 2202 To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to exclude from gross income interest received on certain loans secured by agricultural real property. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES JUNE 23, 2021 Mr. MORAN (for himself, Mr. BOOZMAN, Mr. ROUNDS, Mr. CRAMER, and Mr. MARSHALL) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and re- ferred to the Committee on Finance A BILL To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to exclude from gross income interest received on certain loans se- cured by agricultural real property. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Enhancing Credit Op- 4 portunities in Rural America Act of 2021’’ or as the 5 ‘‘ECORA Act of 2021’’. 6 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:04 Jul 02, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2202.IS S2202 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •S 2202 IS SEC. 2. EXCLUSION FOR INTEREST ON LOANS SECURED BY 1 AGRICULTURAL REAL PROPERTY. 2 (a) IN GENERAL.—Part III of subchapter B of chap- 3 ter 1 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended 4 by inserting after section 139H the following new section: 5 ‘‘SEC. 139I. INTEREST ON LOANS SECURED BY AGRICUL- 6 TURAL REAL PROPERTY. 7 ‘‘(a) EXCLUSION.—Gross income shall not include in- 8 terest received by a qualified lender on any qualified real 9 estate loan. 10 ‘‘(b) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section— 11 ‘‘(1) QUALIFIED LENDER.—The term ‘qualified 12 lender’ means— 13 ‘‘(A) any bank or savings association the 14 deposits of which are insured under the Federal 15 Deposit Insurance Act (12 U.S.C. 1811 et 16 seq.), or 17 ‘‘(B) any entity wholly owned, directly or 18 indirectly, by a company that is treated as a 19 bank holding company for purposes of section 8 20 of the International Banking Act of 1978 (12 21 U.S.C. 3106) if such entity is a legal person— 22 ‘‘(i) organized, incorporated, or estab- 23 lished under the laws of the United States 24 or any State of the United States, and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:04 Jul 02, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2202.IS S2202 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •S 2202 IS ‘‘(ii) having its principal place of busi- 1 ness in the United States. 2 ‘‘(2) QUALIFIED REAL ESTATE LOAN.—The 3 term ‘qualified real estate loan’ means any loan se- 4 cured by agricultural real estate or by a leasehold 5 mortgage (with a status as a lien) on agricultural 6 real estate. For purposes of the preceding sentence, 7 the determination of whether property securing such 8 loan is agricultural real estate shall be made as of 9 the time the interest income on such loan is accrued. 10 ‘‘(3) AGRICULTURAL REAL ESTATE.—The term 11 ‘agricultural real estate’ means— 12 ‘‘(A) real property which is substantially 13 used for the production of one or more agricul- 14 tural products, and 15 ‘‘(B) any single family residence— 16 ‘‘(i) which is the principal residence 17 (within the meaning of section 121) of its 18 occupant, 19 ‘‘(ii) which is located in a rural area 20 (as determined by the Secretary of Agri- 21 culture), which is not within a Metropoli- 22 tan Statistical Area (as defined by the Of- 23 fice of Management and Budget) and 24 which has a population (determined on the 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:04 Jul 02, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2202.IS S2202 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •S 2202 IS basis of the most recent decennial census 1 for which data are available) of 2,500 or 2 less, and 3 ‘‘(iii) which is purchased or improved 4 with the proceeds of the qualified real es- 5 tate loan. 6 ‘‘(c) COORDINATION WITH SECTION 265.—Qualified 7 real estate loans shall be treated as obligations described 8 in section 265(a)(2) the interest on which is wholly exempt 9 from the taxes imposed by this subtitle.’’. 10 (b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of sections 11 for such part III is amended by inserting after the item 12 relating to section 139H the following new item: 13 ‘‘Sec. 139I. Interest on loans secured by agricultural real property.’’. (c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 14 this section shall apply to taxable years beginning after 15 the date of the enactment of this Act. 16 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:04 Jul 02, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S2202.IS S2202 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS