Commercial Casinos Energy Policy Act Tax Opportunity

 The casino environment

Commercial casinos in the United States had a total revenue of at least $30 Billion between 2005 and 2008.1. Due to the economic downturn in America, US casino construction has slowed to a crawl and operators have shifted their attention to cost reductions for existing facilities.

Section 179(D), Tax Provisions

Casino operators are increasingly taking advantage of the EPAct IRC Section 179(D), commercial building energy efficiency tax provisions. These provisions have been extended up to 2013. EPAct tax deductions can be claimed for qualifying energy savings in lighting, HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning), or building envelope. The building envelope is made up of the foundation, walls, roof and windows of the building. These elements control the flow and distribution of energy within the building.

The Nature of Casino Properties

Many commercial casinos include hotel resorts that offer attractive services to their corporate and family clients. Because of their large gaming floors and hotel occupancy rooms, meeting halls and parking garages, casinos are well-suited for EPAct. These features often consume large amounts of space. The EPAct benefit can be as high as 60 cents per square feet for each of the three mentioned measures. The smallest commercial casinos can be found at around 50,000 square feet, while the majority of American casinos span more than 100,000 square feet. MGM Grand, located on the Las Vegas Strip, is the largest of all the casinos. It covers almost 2 million square feet. The most popular Section 179 building category is the hotel industry. (See "Hotels and Motels Most Favoured Energy Policy Act Tax Properties")

Commonly, commercial casinos are thought to be located in New Jersey and Nevada. Although these states are the most lucrative for commercial casino revenue, there are twelve states that have commercial casinos. The other states with commercial casino state in the United States are Colorado, Illinois and Indiana. The American Gaming Association has made public some of its commitments to energy conservation. Boyd Gaming Corporation, Harrah's Entertainment, Inc., MGM Mirage are the casinos that were reported. Their projects include significant energy savings through cogeneration, ERV (energy recovery ventilation), more efficient HVAC units and replacing incandescent lighting with energy-efficient lightings. They also have windows equipped with energy efficient daylighting systems.

Casinos and especially casino hotels are the most preferred property category to receive the Section 179D tax deduction. This rule requires a minimum 25% reduction in watts per square foot compared to the 2001 ASHRAE building energy code standard. A 40% reduction in wattage per square foot is sufficient to qualify for full tax deduction. This is in comparison with the ASHRAE 2001 standard. A 40% reduction in wattage is required by ASHRAE 2004 for hotel/motel buildings. This means that any hotel/motel lighting installation that meets this requirement will automatically be eligible for the maximum EPAct tax deduction 에볼루션 바카라.

Occupancy rooms

The Section 179D tax provisions apply to all other categories of buildings. They require compliance with the bilevel switching requirement. This comparison uses wired lighting rather than plug-in. The advantage of casino hotel occupancy rooms is that they use plug-in lighting. These rooms also function as motel and hotel spaces and are exempt from the tax bilevel switching requirement. Because occupant rooms are often the largest spaces in casino hotels, casinos can usually use energy-efficient lighting to generate large EPAct tax deductions.