Sponsors (5)
Introduced April 30, 2025 by Mark Edward Kelly · Last progress April 30, 2025
The bill channels substantial, targeted tax incentives and rules to rebuild and secure the U.S. maritime sector—boosting shipbuilding, ports, and readiness—but does so at the cost of reduced federal revenue, added compliance complexity, and benefits concentrated toward certain firms and industries.
Shipowners and U.S. shipyards: large new/expanded refundable or transferable tax credits (including a 33% credit for qualified U.S.-flag vessel construction/repowering and a 25% credit for qualifying shipyard investments) lower project costs, support domestic shipbuilding jobs, and can be monetized by smaller or cash-constrained firms.
Coastal and territorial U.S. vessel operators: an excise-tax exemption on fuel for qualifying vessels reduces operating fuel costs and may modestly lower shipping/freight costs along affected routes.
Ports, shipyards, and maritime businesses in designated tracts: access to Opportunity Zone tax incentives that direct private capital toward maritime NAICS industries, potentially increasing local investment and job creation during the designation period.
Taxpayers and the federal budget: multiple new tax breaks and exclusions (fuel exemption, Opportunity Zone expansions, large refundable/transferable credits, and income exclusions) reduce federal revenue and could increase the deficit or require offsets elsewhere.
Claimants and the IRS: the bill creates substantial new compliance complexity, detailed eligibility rules, recapture penalties (including severe tax increases for violations), and discretionary Treasury determinations that raise uncertainty, administrative costs, and audit risk for businesses and the government.
Smaller firms, non-qualifying carriers, and businesses outside narrow NAICS definitions: the bill concentrates benefits on specific carriers, industries, and larger operators, creating competitive disparities and disadvantaging firms that don’t meet the new definitions or negotiation ability.
Based on analysis of 20 sections of legislative text.
Adds vessel and shipyard tax credits, expands a vessel fuel-tax exemption, creates maritime opportunity-zone designations, and excludes certain maritime payments from taxable income.
Creates a package of tax changes and targeted incentives to boost U.S. commercial shipbuilding, shipyard investment, and certain maritime operations. It adds two new tax credits (one for vessel investment and one for shipyard investment), expands a fuel excise tax exemption for qualifying U.S. trade vessels, designates up to 100 "maritime prosperity" opportunity-zone tracts, and excludes certain maritime security and student incentive payments from taxable income. The bill tightens domestic-ownership, construction, and operating rules for vessels and shipyard projects, limits eligibility to exclude foreign entities of concern, adds domestic-content and national-security-related restrictions (including bans on some crane purchases), and makes multiple conforming changes across the tax code and capital construction fund rules. Effective dates vary by provision, with many tax changes applying for taxable years beginning after December 31, 2025, and some credits limited to property placed in service before the end of 2032.