LIMITATION ON PROPERTY FOR WHICH INCOME FORECAST METHOD MAY BE USED.

SEC. 1086. LIMITATION ON PROPERTY FOR WHICH INCOME FORECAST METHOD MAY BE USED. (a) Limitation.—Subsection (g) of section 167 is amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph: “(6) Limitation on property for which income forecast method may be used.—The depreciation deduction allowable under this section may be determined under the income forecast method or any similar method only with respect to— “(A) property described in paragraph (3) or (4) of section 168(f), “(B) copyrights, “(C) books, “(D) patents, and “(E) other property specified in regulations. Such methods may not be used with respect to any amortizable section 197 intangible (as defined in section 197(c)).”. (b) Depreciation Period for Rent-To-own Property.— (1) In general.—Subparagraph (A) of section 168(e)(3) (relating to 3-year property) is amended by striking “and” at the end of clause (i), by striking the period at the end of clause (ii) and inserting “, and”, and by adding at the end the following new clause: “(iii) any qualified rent-to-own property.”. (2) 4-year class life.—The table contained in section 168(g)(3)(B) is amended by inserting before the first item the following new item: “(A)(iii) 4 ”, (3) Definition of qualified rent-to-own property.—Subsection (i) of section 168 is amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph: “(14) Qualified rent-to-own property.— “(A) In general.—The term ‘qualified rent-to-own property’ means property held by a rent-to-own dealer for purposes of being subject to a rent-to-own contract. “(B) Rent-to-own dealer.—The term ‘rent-to-own dealer’ means a person that, in the ordinary course of business, regularly enters into rent-to-own contracts with customers for the use of consumer property, if a substantial portion of those contracts terminate and the property is returned to such person before the receipt of all payments 111 STAT. 958required to transfer ownership of the property from such person to the customer. “(C) Consumer property.—The term ‘consumer property’ means tangible personal property of a type generally used within the home for personal use. “(D) Rent-to-own contract.—The term ‘rent-to-own contract’ means any lease for the use of consumer property between a rent-to-own dealer and a customer who is an individual which— “(i) is titled ‘Rent-to-Own Agreement’ or ‘Lease Agreement with Ownership Option,’ or uses other similar language, “(ii) provides for level (or decreasing where no payment is less than 40 percent of the largest payment), regular periodic payments (for a payment period which is a week or month), “(iii) provides that legal title to such property remains with the rent-to-own dealer until the customer makes all the payments described in clause (ii) or early purchase payments required under the contract to acquire legal title to the item of property, “(iv) provides a beginning date and a maximum period of time for which the contract may be in effect that does not exceed 156 weeks or 36 months from such beginning date (including renewals or options to extend), “(v) provides for payments within the 156-week or 36-month period that, in the aggregate, generally exceed the normal retail price of the consumer property plus interest, “(vi) provides for payments under the contract that, in the aggregate, do not exceed $10,000 per item of consumer property, “(vii) provides that the customer does not have any legal obligation to make all the payments referred to in clause (ii) set forth under the contract, and that at the end of each payment period the customer may either continue to use the consumer property by making the payment for the next payment period or return such property to the rent-to-own dealer in good working order, in which case the customer does not incur any further obligations under the contract and is not entitled to a return of any payments previously made under the contract, and “(viii) provides that the customer has no right to sell, sublease, mortgage, pawn, pledge, encumber, or otherwise dispose of the consumer property until all the payments stated in the contract have been made”. (c) Effective Date.—The amendment made by this section shall apply to property placed in service after the date of the enactment of this Act.111 STAT. 959