LIHTC

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently issued Notice 2013-40 and 2013-39 to suspend certain low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) and tax exempt facility bond rules in order to allow owners of low-income housing to provide temporary shelter to non-low-income victims of the May 2013 Oklahoma tornadoes.

The 2014 proposed Iowa Qualified Allocation Plan (QAP) has been posted on the Iowa Finance Authority website and is open for public comments until August 27, 2013 at 4:30PM CST

Due to higher demand for long term bonds in Oregon, the Oregon Housing and Community Services (OHCS) has undertaken an analysis of current charges for bonds and 4% transactions. On June 7, 2013 the State Housing Council moved to approve the change of the 4% LIHTC reservation charge from 6.5% to 12% on all existing applications and future applications using OHCS Bonds. The 4% LIHTC transaction which use private activity bonds that have a PAB committee date set as of July 11, 2013 will not be affected at this time by the changes, though the Oregon State Housing Council will vote on expanding the reservation charge to include 4% LIHTC transactions at the August 2, 2013 meeting.

The Michigan State Housing Department Authority (MSHDA) has posted an updated version of the Scoring Criteria for the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program to its website. MSHDA made this necessary update to modify the Cost Containment criteria to reflect new data that is now available following the completion of awards of 9% LIHTC from the 2013 allocation year. MSHDA also announced that the first competitive funding round for 2014 Low Income Housing Tax Credit will have an application submission deadline on August 15, 2013 at 5:00 P.M. EST.

The Arizona Department of Housing (ADOH) is requesting input for its 2014 Qualified Allocation Plan (QAP).

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a new report entitled “Corporate Tax Expenditures: Information on Estimated Revenue Losses and Related Federal Spending Programs.” The report comes out as the U.S. Congress begins more serious consideration of tax reform. Presumably the data will be used to inform decisions as the topic is debated further and could have an impact on various programs utilized by NH&RA members. The report does not make any policy recommendations or endorsements regarding specific programs but does outline costs, revenue forgone and provides a basis for comparison acorss budget functions.

The Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) announced the start of their summer 2013 affordable housing competition for rental projects. The DHDC will accept applications from sponsors whose projects were pre-approved in June 2013 through DHCD’s pre-application process.

The Alaska Housing Finance Corporation announced the start of the FY2014 GOAL Competition, which provides grants, federal tax credits, and zero-interest federal loans to developers and project sponsors to build affordable housing for low to moderate income families and seniors.

MaineHousing will hold a public hearing of the Draft 2014 Qualified Allocation Plan at 9:30 AM on Tuesday, June 18, 2013.

NH&RA member firm, CohnReznick recently released a report examining the relationship between low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) pricing and banks that invest in certain geographies in order to meet certain conditions under the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) of 1977.

A bipartisan coalition of U.S. lawmakers recently introduced the Hurricane Sandy Tax Relief Act of 2013 (H.R.2137) to provide tax relief for victims of Hurricane Sandy in areas designated as federal disaster areas by the president.

In his State of the City speech earlier this year, Washington, DC Mayor Vincent Gray pledged $100 million towards affordable housing for the District of Columbia. The plan that will guide the administration’s affordable housing efforts was recently unveiled. “Bridges to Opportunity: A New Housing Strategy for DC” was produced by a task force appointed by the Mayor in 2012 and proposes three broad strategic goals and 24 Action Items to achieve those goals.