Freight RAILCAR Act of 2025
The Freight RAILCAR Act of 2025 creates a new tax credit (the Freight Railcar Modernization Credit) to encourage freight railcar fleet modernization. The credit is a 10 percent business credit against the taxpayer’s eligible fleet modernization expenses, limited to 1,000 qualified freight railcars per taxpayer per year. Eligible expenses include the basis of newly built replacement railcars and modernization expenditures. A replacement railcar must be a newly built eligible railcar placed in service within three years of enactment and must replace two scrapped railcars that were in service in the prior four years and permanently removed from the AAR Umler master file in the tax year. To qualify, railcars must meet “significant improvement” thresholds (an 8 percent capacity increase or compliance with specific performance standards) and must be built or modernized in a qualified facility (not owned/leased by entities ineligible for certain DOT contracts). The credit also contains anti-abuse rules (no double benefit, basis reduction, sale-leaseback and syndication rules, and ineligibility for state-owned enterprises). The credit is scheduled to apply to property placed in service and amounts paid after December 31, 2024, and it sunsets three years after enactment. The bill also requires a Treasury report within three years detailing how the credit was used and its effects on railcar scrappage and new railcar activity.
Key Points
- 110% credit on freight railcar fleet modernization expenses, capped at 1,000 qualified railcars per taxpayer per year.
- 2Qualified railcars can be new replacements or modernized cars that meet “significant improvement” criteria (capacity increase of at least 8% or meeting specified performance standards) and are built in a qualified facility.
- 3Replacement rule: one qualified newly built replacement railcar must replace two scrapped railcars that were in service within the prior 48 months and were permanently removed from the AAR Umler master file in the tax year.
- 4Qualified facility and anti-abuse rules: facilities cannot be owned/leased by entities ineligible for certain DOT contracts; no double credit, basis reduction, and rules for sale-leaseback and syndication to prevent “double-dipping.”
- 5Eligibility limitations: entities owned or controlled by state-owned enterprises are ineligible for the credit.
- 6Interaction and sunset: the credit is treated as a business credit under the general rules (Sec. 38), applies to property placed in service after 2024, and terminates after three years from enactment.
- 7Reporting: a Treasury/IRS report to Congress within three years detailing claims, railcar scrappage, and new railcar contracting/builds.