The IRS sets priority guidance plans each year and updates them on a quarterly basis. The IRS uses the priority guidance plan each year to identify and prioritize the tax issues that should be addressed through regulations, revenue rulings, revenue procedures, notices, and other published...
The National Housing Conference’s Center for Housing Policy recently released a cost burden report that examines trends in housing affordability for low- to moderate-income working families throughout the United States. Using the U.S.
On Feb. 2, President Obama introduced his fiscal year (FY) 2016 budget. The proposal includes significant policy proposals aimed at improving the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program. The budget retains many of last year’s proposed modifications, and adds a new proposal to remove...
HUD recently issued a memo clarifying tenant protections for households when owners use both HUD-assistance and LIHTC financing. According to HUD, there have been reports that some owners had been trying to terminate the tenancy of current HUD-assisted tenants who don’t meet LIHTC...
The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) recently issued its 2015 poverty guidelines. These guidelines are used to determine financial eligibility for certain federal programs. Now that these guidelines have been published, HUD will release two sets of new income limits for...
On Dec. 19, President Obama signed H.R. 5771, The Tax Increase Prevention Act of 2014, into law. This law extends for one year only a number of tax relief provisions that expired on Dec. 31, 2013. The one-year extension act passed the Senate earlier by a vote of 76-16. And the House passed the...
On Dec. 11, 2014, Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Melvin L. Watt instructed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to begin setting aside and allocating funds for the Housing Trust Fund and the Capital Magnet Fund. Congress created the two funds in 2008 under the Housing and Economic Recovery...
Housing credit sites are performing well across-the-board, including large, small, urban, and ex-urban projects, according to a recent report published by CohnReznick entitled “The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program: A Performance Update Analysis.”
Oregon Housing and Community Services (OHCS), the agency that administers the LIHTC program in Oregon, recently released new data on the demographics of households served by LIHTC sites in 24 of the state’s 26 counties. This is the first publically available dataset on LIHTC properties to...
On Nov. 7, HUD submitted its Fiscal Year 2012-2013 Annual Report on the State of Fair Housing in America to Congress. The report includes information regarding the prevalence of different types of discrimination in housing and HUD’s actions to combat discrimination.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) released on Nov. 21 the final version of its strategic plan for fiscal years 2015-2019. The FHFA was established by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA) and is responsible for the effective supervision, regulation, and housing mission...
On Oct. 22, the federal government announced that the Social Security Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for 2015 will be 1.7 percent. This is up from the 2014 increase of 1.5 percent, but less than the 3.6 percent increase of 2012. Next year will mark only the eighth time the COLA has been less...
