# The Airborne Act: A Tax Break for Better Indoor Air Quality

The Airborne Act creates a new tax credit that rewards businesses, nonprofits, and public buildings for improving their indoor air quality. If your company, school, hospital, or other organization spends money to assess and upgrade your ventilation and air filtration systems, you can get money back on your taxes to help offset those costs.

Here's how it works in practice: First, you'd hire someone to conduct an official assessment of your building's air quality to see if it meets modern ventilation standards. That assessment itself qualifies for a $1 per square foot tax credit. Then, if you upgrade your air filters or HVAC (heating and cooling) systems to meet higher standards, you get additional credits—$5 per square foot for filter upgrades and $50 per square foot for HVAC system upgrades. The bill specifically requires these upgrades to meet ASHRAE standards (a major industry standard for ventilation) and use high-quality filters rated MERV 13 or better, which are the types that became popular during the COVID-19 pandemic for filtering out airborne particles.

The catch is that the tax credit only covers up to 50 percent of what you actually spend on the filters and HVAC work. So if you spend $100,000 upgrading your system, the tax credit could help cover up to $50,000 of that cost. The bill applies to commercial buildings, government properties, and nonprofit organizations, but not to residential homes. The credits would be available starting in 2022, and the government has one year to set up an official certification program so property owners can prove their improvements meet the required standards.

Airborne Act

Beyer, Donald S.

Airborne Act This bill allows owners of commercial or public properties a tax credit for the cost of an indoor air quality assessment and an air filter or qualified HVAC upgrade to such properties. The bill also directs the Department of Energy to establish a voluntary certification program for property owners to certify that their properties are in compliance with the indoor air quality standards added by this bill.