Practice Rights
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In any given year, ASID is actively engaged in introducing positive and defeating harmful legislation in 10 to 20 states and jurisdictions, while monitoring public policy in all 50 states.
ASID staff are engaged in direct lobbying and retain contractual lobbying services in state capitals to perform legislative and regulatory work. We also work with local chapters and members to provide assistance and resources, and to craft strategy that’s tailored to the individual state to promote policies and issues important to interior designers.
Twenty-eight U.S. states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and eight Canadian provinces have enacted interior design legislation to date. Use of the terms “interior designer,” “certified interior designer,” and “registered interior designer,” vary from state to state, as do the regulations, practice rights, and responsibilities of interior designers in each jurisdiction.
Practice Rights
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Lien Rights
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Firm Ownership
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As interior designers are one of the guardians of public health, safety, and welfare in the built environment, ASID supports voluntary state registration or certification of qualified interior designers and the accompanying independent ability to sign and seal construction documents for permit under the state’s defined or proposed scope of practice for interior designers.
Resources
ASID Policy Statement on Practice Rights
ASID Statement on Stamp and Seal Rights
For more specific advocacy materials on state practice rights, please visit the GPA “Chapter Resources” page and sign-in with your member ID.
Has a client ever not paid you for the work you perform on their property? Interior designers experience this much too often.
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Interior designers deserve the economic opportunity to be promoted and the right to own a design firm offering interior design services as well as architectural and engineering services. Unfortunately, too many states deny ownership and promotion rights to interior designers and therefore they are put at a competitive disadvantage.
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Taxes
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Procurement
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Policymakers often erroneously portray interior design services as a strictly luxury service in an attempt to impose a new tax. Interior designers protect businesses and commercial building owners by ensuring that their spaces are compliant with law and regulation including the Americans with Disabilities Act and that jurisdiction’s building and fire codes. This is an essential service that should not be taxed as an unnecessary luxury. Moreover, 82 percent of interior design firms nationally are small businesses of four or fewer employees. Taxes on interior design services disproportionately harm small businesses and that’s why fewer than five states choose to impose them.
Resources
Connecticut-Testimony-Tax on Services
Rhode Island-Letter-Tax on Services
Several US states forbid interior designers and interiors only firms from bidding on state government design and construction projects that involve work beyond the scope of interior design. Like architects and engineers, certified interior designers are trained to be project managers with the ability to coordinate the work of several construction discipline professionals. Interior designers know how to compile a team of experts from architects and engineers to contractors and trades people to get the job done. Interior designers and interior design firms should be able to bid on all comprehensive building design and construction government projects in all U.S. states and territories.