I 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1977 

To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to exclude from gross income 

interest received on certain loans secured by agricultural real property. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MARCH 17, 2021 

Mr. KIND (for himself and Mr. FEENSTRA) introduced the following bill; 

which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means 

A BILL 

To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to exclude 

from gross income interest received on certain loans secured by agricultural real property. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Enhancing Credit Op5 portunities in Rural America Act of 2021’’ or as the 

6 ‘‘ECORA Act of 2021’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. EXCLUSION FOR INTEREST ON LOANS SECURED BY 

2 AGRICULTURAL REAL PROPERTY. 

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Part III of subchapter B of chap4 ter 1 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended 

5 by inserting after section 139H the following new section: 

6 ‘‘SEC. 139I. INTEREST ON LOANS SECURED BY AGRICUL7 TURAL REAL PROPERTY. 

8 ‘‘(a) EXCLUSION.—Gross income shall not include in9 terest received by a qualified lender on any qualified real 

10 estate loan. 

11 ‘‘(b) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section— 

12 ‘‘(1) QUALIFIED LENDER.—The term ‘qualified 

13 lender’ means— 

14 ‘‘(A) any bank or savings association the 

15 deposits of which are insured under the Federal 

16 Deposit Insurance Act (12 U.S.C. 1811 et 

17 seq.), or 

18 ‘‘(B) any entity wholly owned, directly or 

19 indirectly, by a company that is treated as a 

20 bank holding company for purposes of section 8 

21 of the International Banking Act of 1978 (12 

22 U.S.C. 3106) if such entity is a legal person— 

23 ‘‘(i) organized, incorporated, or estab24 lished under the laws of the United States 

25 or any State of the United States, and 


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1 ‘‘(ii) having its principal place of busi2 ness in the United States. 

3 ‘‘(2) QUALIFIED REAL ESTATE LOAN.—The 

4 term ‘qualified real estate loan’ means any loan se5 cured by agricultural real estate or by a leasehold 

6 mortgage (with a status as a lien) on agricultural 

7 real estate. For purposes of the preceding sentence, 

8 the determination of whether property securing such 

9 loan is agricultural real estate shall be made as of 

10 the time the interest income on such loan is accrued. 

11 ‘‘(3) AGRICULTURAL REAL ESTATE.—The term 

12 ‘agricultural real estate’ means— 

13 ‘‘(A) real property which is substantially 

14 used for the production of one or more agricul15 tural products, and 

16 ‘‘(B) any single family residence— 

17 ‘‘(i) which is the principal residence 

18 (within the meaning of section 121) of its 

19 occupant, 

20 ‘‘(ii) which is located in a rural area 

21 (as determined by the Secretary of Agri22 culture), which is not within a Metropoli23 tan Statistical Area (as defined by the Of24 fice of Management and Budget) and 

25 which has a population (determined on the 


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1 basis of the most recent decennial census 

2 for which data are available) of 2,500 or 

3 less, and 

4 ‘‘(iii) which is purchased or improved 

5 with the proceeds of the qualified real es6 tate loan. 

7 ‘‘(c) COORDINATION WITH SECTION 265.—Qualified 

8 real estate loans shall be treated as obligations described 

9 in section 265(a)(2) the interest on which is wholly exempt 

10 from the taxes imposed by this subtitle.’’. 

11 (b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of sections 

12 for such part III is amended by inserting after the item 

13 relating to section 139H the following new item: 

‘‘Sec. 139I. Interest on loans secured by agricultural real property.’’. 

14 (c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 

15 this section shall apply to taxable years beginning after 

16 the date of the enactment of this Act. 

Æ 


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