Thom Amdur Author Archives

The Internal Revenue Services submitted regulatory guidance for the Qualified Opportunity Zone Program to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, a division of the White House Office Management of the Budget (OMB) on Wednesday September 12.  This proposed rule is expected to clarify several issues relating to the incentive.  The specifics of the proposed regulatory […]

The Council of Development Finance Agencies has issued a new report titled, “CDFA Opportunity Zones Report: State of the States.” Recognizing that Opportunity Zones have the potential to be a transformative economic development tool in distressed areas around the country, CDFA members are actively developing Opportunity Zones strategies to attract investment, identify additional development finance […]

City NIMBYs, a new article authored by NYU Furman Center Faculty Director Vicki Been, explores the growing trend of opposition to development in cities. It describes the academic discussions of this trend to date, reviews the known impact of opposition and regulatory barriers to development, and proposes factors that may explain the growing opposition to […]

The NYU Furman Center will host a free webinar, on Tuesday September 25th at 12:00 p.m. ET, on the State of New York City’s Subsidized Housing in 2017. The webinar will review major programs used to develop and preserve affordable housing in the city, and provide the number and location of properties benefiting from a subsidy […]

On September 6, the tenth anniversary of the federal government’s takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, retiring House Financial Services Committee chair Jim Hensarling (R-TX) released a discussion draft for the Bipartisan Housing Finance Reform Act. The measure is co-sponsored by Reps. John Delaney (D-MD) and Jim Himes (D-NY) and would eliminate Fannie Mae […]

Gregory Whitehead has joined Applegate & Thorne-Thomsen. His practice focuses on representation of lenders in affordable housing and community development transactions.

NH&RA Director John Gahan and his colleagues on the colleagues on Sullivan & Worcester Opportunity Zone practice Group, in conjunction with CohnReznick, will be hosting an inter-active panel discussion on Opportunity Zones in Washington, DC on September 25.

Kentucky Housing Corporation (KHC) has updated its 2019 – 2020 Multifamily Program Guidelines to state that the developer fee on Tax-Exempt Bond projects may not exceed 20 percent of the total development cost, minus the following deductions: Developer fee Consultant fee Any fees resembling developer or consultant fees Acquisition costs (related-party transfers only) KHC has […]

On Monday, Sept. 10, House Ways & Means Committee Chair Kevin Brady (R-TX) introduced a three bill follow-up to the  Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. These bills constitute Republicans’ Tax Reform 2.0 package and primarily lock in individual and small business tax cuts made in the legislation passed in December 2017, and reform savings- and education-related tax provisions.  […]

Novogradac & Company has released two online mapping tools that track tax codes of individual states and how they conform to federal tax law concerning the opportunity zones incentive. One tool tracks state law concerning personal income and the other tracks state law concerning corporate income. Both resources also link to relevant state tax code […]

On September 7, the National Council of State Housing Agencies (NCSHA) has released a much anticipated the report by Abt Associates entitled “Variation in Development Costs for LIHTC Projects.”

The Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development has issued the proposed guidance on the new income averaging election for the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program.  The Department will hold several information sessions on income averaging over the next month. Given the many uncertainties associated with IA, at this time DHCD will only contemplate […]