To comply with tax credit rules, you must verify the student status of each household member who says he or she is a student. That’s because tax credit rules bar households composed entirely of full-time students. And if the student is a member of a household that’s not barred for...
Each year, if you manage a mixed-income site, you have the time-consuming job of recertifying tax credit households. But some households make the process more burdensome for you by failing to show up for a recertification meeting. If household members don’t report to a meeting until...
The federal Opportunity Zone program has generated a lot of excitement among investors and the real estate industry since it was created as part of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The Opportunity Zone program seeks to be a catalyst for development in the neediest communities.
As an owner or manager, you do your best to hold on to most households, especially because qualified tax credit households can be hard to find. But there may be times when, in order to comply with the tax credit program, you may have to ask certain tax credit households to leave. For instance,...
It’s important for a tax credit site manager to be aware of fair housing laws. In addition to legal troubles, violating fair housing laws can jeopardize an owner’s low-income housing credits. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) enforces the Fair Housing Act (FHA)...
When certifying and recertifying households, you must first try to verify the items you include in household income with third-party sources. For example, you must ask a resident’s employer to verify her employment income. But third-party sources don’t always cooperate with you by...
Along with the colder weather comes the risk of carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning. CO is a colorless, odorless gas that’s the second most common cause of non-medicinal poisoning death. According to the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), over 10,000 people are poisoned by CO and...
As a tax credit manager, you must be aware of households’ composition and how changes in the size of an existing household after the initial tenant income certification may invoke certain LIHTC rules. Generally, changes in family size don’t cause a unit to stop being income-qualified...
Every year site owners submit various IRS tax forms to claim the low-income housing tax credit on their tax return. IRS examiners look at the submitted information along with internal IRS information to determine whether to conduct an audit. If an examiner wants to continue with the audit...
When managing a tax credit site, you may be confused about what you can and can’t do when it comes to creating a lease for your low-income households. For instance, you may be unsure whether you can give households a one-month lease without putting your site owner’s tax credits at...
The LIHTC program is an indirect federal subsidy used to finance the construction and rehabilitation of low-income affordable rental housing. LIHTC sites receive funding either as new construction or acquisition rehab. A recently published U.S. Government Accountability Office report on LIHTC...