The Recording Academy has united its elected leadership in support of the Help Independent Tracks Succeed (HITS) Act, a bipartisan solution that would offer independent creators a new tax incentive to bolster the music community’s recovery from the economic effects of coronavirus.

On August 27, more than 300 of the Recording Academy’s elected leaders across all 12 Chapters signed a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) in support of the HITS Act. The letter urges the Congressional leaders to include the HITS Act in any upcoming COVID-19 relief package in order to bolster the music community’s recovery.

"COVID-19 has had a profound impact on the music industry—tours are cancelled, venues and bars are shut, and studios remain closed. Many creators are forced to consider giving up their career," they wrote. "With median incomes of just $25,000 a year, independent music creators need a better path forward to recovery. They need the HITS Act."

The letter also outlines how the bill will incentivize new opportunities for music makers, while highlighting that the bill is bipartisan and a low-cost change to the tax code. 

"The HITS Act would enable an individual to fully expense, for tax purposes, the cost of new studio recordings on their taxes, up to $150,000, within the same year of production," the letter reads. "This would represent a significant improvement from the current tax system, which restricts the creation of music by requiring the creator to amortize production expenses over a period of years. The HITS Act allows artists and producers to choose to deduct 100% of their production expenses up front, in the same manner that qualified film and television production expenses are allowed to be expensed."

With so many U.S. music professionals impacted so severely by the pandemic, the HITS Act provides a path forward toward recovery. By urging Congress to include the act in the next COVID-19 relief package, the music professionals from across the country who have signed the letter have raised their voices in unity for the well-being of the music community. Will Washington listen?

Join the Academy’s elected leaders by contacting your lawmakers and asking for their support of the bipartisan HITS Act.

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