Certification

How to Certify Households Sharing Child Custody

November 29, 2018

Site managers have to deal with countless situations presented to them by residents, one of which is shared custody of children. A low-income household may report to you that its members include children who are covered by a joint custody arrangement—that is, the children live part of the...

Conduct Detailed Interview of Households Claiming Zero Income

October 30, 2018

Under Treasury Regulations 1.42-5(b)(1)(vii), LIHTC site owners must document each low-income tenant’s income certification with documents such as federal income tax returns and W-2 forms. The regulation makes an exception for tenants receiving housing assistance payments under Section 8....

How to Certify Income of Dependents in Tax Credit Households

April 29, 2013

Certifying a household that includes dependents—most often children under age 18 or full-time students—isn’t complicated. But if you don’t know the specific rules on counting a dependent’s annual income, it’s easy to make mistakes. And one mistake can lead to...

Making Sense of Household Assets: How to Navigate Four Common Areas of Confusion

March 12, 2011

When certifying or recertifying household income, knowing how to count assets properly is an area that often throws site staff. It can be tricky, but understanding when to treat an item as income or an asset is essential—counting an item as an asset when it's not may lead you to...

Protecting Credits After Discovering Recertification Changes

June 30, 2008

At a household's annual recertification, you may discover things that have changed since the prior year. For example, a household's income may have increased, or its members may have become full-time students. Very often, these changes threaten noncompliance and put the owner's...

How to Get Asset Disposition Statements from Residents

May 31, 2008

As a site owner or manager, you probably know that IRS auditors are entitled to look at your resident files to see whether you have obtained asset disposition statements from households at your site.

The IRS requires these statements because households have been known to shrink their...