News

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac invested more than $1.7 billion in low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) equity in 2023, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s annual Housing Mission Report released today. More than 90% of Fannie and Freddie’s LIHTC activity included transactions that support housing in Duty-to-Serve-designated rural areas, preserve affordable housing, support mixed-income housing, provide supportive housing or meet other affordable housing objectives, according to the report.

Legislation introduced in the New York Legislature would allow the bifurcation, transfer and pass-through of state historic tax credits (HTCs). S.B. 9071 would apply to all state HTCs and would be effective for taxable years beginning on or after Jan. 1, 2025. New York has HTCs for commercial buildings, historic barns and historic homes.

Legislation introduced last year to increase the annual cap for the state low-income housing tax credit in Wisconsin failed to advance in this year’s legislative session. S.B. 40 would have increased the cap to $100 million, created a set-aside of 35% of the total allocation for rural areas when possible and allowed the state credit to go to properties that receive the 9% federal credit. Wisconsin’s LIHTC has a $40 million annual cap and is available only to properties that receive 4% federal LIHTCs.

The National Park Service (NPS), which oversees the federal historic tax credit (HTC) incentive, launched a new web page with information on sustainability, energy efficiency and resilience in historic buildings. This is the first time that information is gathered on one site. The NPS also issued new guidance on resilience to natural hazards, adapted from guidance issued in 2017 and 2021.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will publish in Wednesday’s Federal Register a proposed rule to amend regulations for HUD-assisted properties concerning admission for applicants on the basis of illegal drug use, drug-related criminal activity or other criminal activity. The regulations would be amended to require public housing authorities (PHAs) and HUD-assisted housing owners to consider multiple sources of information, including the recency and relevance of prior criminal activity.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will publish in Tuesday’s Federal Register a notice and request for comments on its Form 8823, Low-Income Housing Credit Agencies Report of Noncompliance or Building Disposition. No changes are being made. The review is to extend the use of the current Form 8823. Written comments on the form are due by June 10.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will allocate an additional $8.2 million in unused federal low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) carryovers to 28 states, ranging from $1.1 million to Texas to $24,409 to Vermont. Revenue Procedure 2024-18 supplements Rev. Proc. 2023-32, released in October 2023, which initially announced an allocation of $3.2 million in unused LIHTCs.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed legislation last week to increase the annual taxpayer cap for state historic tax credits (HTCs) from $5 million to $7.5 million. H.B. 960 makes the change effective for taxable years beginning on or after Jan. 1, 2025. The Virginia HTC is for 25% of qualified rehabilitation expenditures (QREs) with no annual statewide cap.

The Novogradac Rent & Income Limit Calculator© has been updated in the beta version to include fiscal year (FY) 2024 rent and income limit data released Monday by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Using the HUD-published data with an effective date of April 1 (May 16 for properties with decreasing income limits), the Novogradac Rent & Income Limit Calculator© will calculate low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) rent and income limits for every county and every metropolitan statistical area in the United States.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced $20 billion in grant awards for two categories in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GRRF), which was created by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Three organizations will receive a combined $14 billion in grants under the National Clean Investment Fund and five organizations will receive a combined $6 billion in grants in the Clean Communities Investment Accelerator.