LIHTC

In response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Internal Revenue Service today issued Notice 2020-53 to provide tax relief to issuers, operators, owners, and tenants of qualified low-income housing projects or qualified residential rental projects financed with exempt facility bonds, and state agencies that have jurisdiction over these projects.

The Internal Revenue Service issued a proposed rule on the compliance-monitoring duties of state agencies for purposes of the low-income housing credit. The proposed regulations relax the minimum compliance-monitoring sampling requirement for purposes of physical inspections and low-income certification review, providing flexibility and reduced burdens with respect to the requirements set forth in the final regulations published on February 26, 2019.

The House Democrats’ recently released infrastructure bill, Moving Forward Act (H.R. 2), includes a myriad of housing provisions. A vote on the legislation is expected before the Fourth of July recess. While the bill is likely to pass the Democrat-led House, it will face greater resistance in the GOP-led Senate. The bill does not include any pay-fors and Republicans are already panning the bill as dead-on-arrival. However, the bill may set an important marker for future infrastructure negotiations. The Trump administration is reportedly drafting a $1 trillion infrastructure package aimed at spurring the economy.

Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-OR) recently released an outline of affordable housing priorities he will pursue in the next Coronavirus response bill. The six priorities are focused on preserving and expanding affordable housing and, in particular, on supporting LIHTC properties.

The ACTION Campaign developed a fact sheet showing the nationwide impact of the four percent LIHTC, as well as state-specific fact sheets for 21 states and the District of Columbia, which would most benefit from a minimum four percent LIHTC rate.

Sixty-seven mayors representing communities across 28 states and the District of Columbia, joined a letter urging Congress to include provisions that support the LIHTC in the next Coronavirus response package.

The National Council of State Housing Agencies and Novogradac released a report examining the impact of lowering the 50 percent test for four percent LIHTC and tax-exempt bond financed properties and found that a lowered test could result in the financing of between 177,665 and 1,421,320 affordable homes over the next ten years.

The New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency is extending the ten percent test and placed-in-service deadlines for all 2018 and 2019 nine percent LIHTC owners

In Revenue Procedure 2020-21, the IRS provides temporary guidance to allow hearings held by teleconference due to the COVID-19 pandemic to meet the statutory public approval requirement for PABs. Notice 2020-25 temporarily expands the circumstances and period for which a PAB is treated as “continuing in effect” without requiring the reissuance or retirement.

Novogradac published updated unit financing estimates of enacting a minimum four percent LIHTC , which estimates more than 126,000 additional affordable rental homes would be created or preserved from 2020 to 2029. 

The National Council of State Housing Agencies (NCSHA) released a matrix comparing the LIHTC accommodations NCSHA is requesting from the IRS to those allowed under existing IRS Revenue Procedures 2014-49 and 2014-50, which provide relief in instances of Presidentially-declared Major Disasters, and to recent IRS Notice 2020-23, which extends certain program deadlines until July 15, […]

The National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) created a searchable database and map of multifamily properties covered under the federal moratoriums to help renters know if they are protected.