Dear Colleagues,
Thank you to all of you for voicing your support for the Trade Show & Event Recovery Act over the last few weeks and I hope everyone is safe and healthy. I am reaching out today to give you all an update on our progress thus far with the Trade Show and Event Recovery act.
The Trade Show and Event Recovery Act is in the final proposal stages and is currently being presented to governmental lobbyists in order to strengthen our cause. At the suggestion of several industry leaders and legislative experts, we are refining proposal to include more specific requests. Included in these are:
- A tax credit of 50% percent for both exhibitors and attendees of the aggregated costs associated with trade shows. This would include travel, airfare, hotel, meals, space rental, and construction.
- A "sunset” of the act after a period of four years.
- Removal of the current deductions cap for meals and entertainment associated with trade shows and events.
- A loss carryforward for people in our industry for the next five years of taxes.
But before we can get started we have to make people safe. Even more important, we need to make them feel safe when traveling through airports, flying on airplanes, staying at hotels, and attending events. To that end, our friends at The Global Biorisk Advisory Council (GBAC) are doing extraordinary work at hotels, in venues, and working directly with major airlines to achieve this goal. If you’d like to know more about the GBAC Gold Star certification program, please email me directly using at RSimon@unitedhq.com and I will be happy provide you more info.
I know we are all anxious to see a positive upturn in business as our industry gains traction, exhibitors and attendees will be overly conscientious as to the amount of money they are spending. We need this bill to incentivize companies to send more representatives, purchase larger booths, and attend more shows overall. Our overall goal is to “stimulate” spending which will, in turn, aid the airlines, hotels, transportation providers, hosting facilities and hardworking men and women who benefit from the millions of dollars spent on trade shows and events every year.
With this is mind, we will continue to push for a swift resolution to our requests. Please continue to pass this information on to any legislators or congressional constituents you have relationships with, along with your colleagues that might benefit from offering their support to this vital legislative movement.
As more information becomes available, we will share it with all of you. If you have any additional questions or comments, please reach out to TradeShowRecoveryAct@tradeshowexecutive.com.
Again, your support is appreciated as we work towards the recovery of our industry together.
Sincerely,
Rick Simon
Chairman
Trade Show Executive Media Group
rsimon@unitedhq.com