I 
108TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1597
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to classify qualified rental 
office furniture as 5-year property for purposes of depreciation. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 3, 2003
Mr. COLLINS 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 classify 
qualified rental office furniture as 5-year property for 
purposes of depreciation.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. CLASSIFICATION OF QUALIFIED RENTAL OF-
FICE FURNITURE. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Subparagraph (B) of section 
168(e)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (relating 
to 5-year property) is amended by striking ‘‘and’’ at the 
end of clause (v), by striking the period at the end of 
clause (vi) and inserting ‘‘, and,’’ and by adding at the 
end the following:
‘‘(vii) any qualified rental office fur-
niture.’’
(b) ALTERNATIVE SYSTEM.—The table contained in 
section 168(g)(3)(B) of the Internal Revenue Code of 
1986 is amended by inserting after the third item the fol-
lowing:
‘‘(B)(vii) ....................................................................................................
9’’.
(c) DEFINITION
OF QUALIFIED RENTAL OFFICE 
FURNITURE.—Subsection (i) of section 168 of the Inter-
nal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by adding at the 
end the following: 
‘‘(15) 
QUALIFIED
RENTAL
OFFICE
FUR-
NITURE.—
‘‘(A) IN
GENERAL.—The term ‘qualified 
rental office furniture’ means office furniture 
held by an office furniture rental dealer pri-
marily for purposes of leasing to customers by 
means of a short-term office furniture rental 
contract. 
‘‘(B) OFFICE FURNITURE RENTAL DEAL-
ER.—The term ‘office furniture rental dealer’ 
means a person that, in the ordinary course of 
business, regularly enters into short-term office 
furniture rental contracts with customers for 
the use of office furniture.
‘‘(C) SHORT-TERM
OFFICE
FURNITURE 
RENTAL CONTRACT.—The term ‘short-term of-
fice furniture rental contract’ means any lease 
with a term of 18 months or less, between unre-
lated parties, for the use of office furniture.’’. 
(d) OPTIONS TO RENEW NOT TO BE AUTOMATI-
CALLY TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT.—Paragraph (3) of sub-
section (i) of section 168 of the Internal Revenue Code 
of 1986 is amended by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(C) SPECIAL
RULE
FOR
OPTIONS
ON 
SHORT-TERM OFFICE FURNITURE RENTAL CON-
TRACTS.—For purposes of clause (i) of sub-
paragraph (A), in the case of a short-term of-
fice furniture rental contract, there shall not be 
taken into account any option to renew at a 
price equal to or in excess of the price applica-
ble to the initial term of the lease.’’. 
(e) APPLICABILITY.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in para-
graph (2), the amendments made by this section 
shall apply to property placed in service on or after 
the date of the enactment of this Act. 
(2) TRANSITION RULE.—
(A) IN GENERAL.—A taxpayer may elect 
(in such form and manner as the Secretary of
the Treasury may prescribe) to have the 
amendments made by this section apply to 
property placed in service before the date of the 
enactment of this section. 
(B) METHOD OF ACCOUNTING.—For pur-
poses of section 481, an election under subpara-
graph (A) shall be treated as a change in meth-
od of accounting made with the consent of the 
Secretary of the Treasury and any adjustment 
necessary by reason of such change shall be in-
cluded in the year of the change. 
(C) ELECTION DEEMED MADE.—For pur-
poses of subparagraph (A), a taxpayer which 
has consistently treated qualified rental office 
furniture (as defined in section 168(i)(15) of 
the Internal Revenue Code of 1986) as 5-year 
property shall be treated as having made the 
election under such subparagraph with respect 
to the property.
Æ