Tax Credit Advisor Article Archives

Encouraging net-zero home construction is an increasingly common tool cities and states seek to reduce their carbon footprints. Buildings account for a substantial share of carbon emissions in many cities and the U.S. in general. Accordingly, several jurisdictions have introduced requirements and incentives for increasing net-zero construction, focusing on residential development. An Urban Land Institute-affiliated consortium of developers, for example, has committed to bring half of their projects to net-zero compliance by 2030.

COVID-19 is in headlong retreat: infections down 70 percent since January, seven-day average hospitalizations and deaths down 66 percent and 77 percent. In less than six months, Covid-19 vaccines in America will have gone from impossibility through scarcity to surplus, with the administration announcing that “all willing American adults will be able to receive a COVID-19 vaccine by the end of May.”

Victor Body-Lawson’s designs go beyond the basics of putting a roof over people’s heads. The New York City architect plans housing to enhance a community’s health and financial strength as well. And he often thinks about how to house residents’ souls.

To prevent the spread of COVID-19, people were told to spread out, but the pandemic’s impact on affordable housing design might have been to accelerate the use of tighter energy efficient design plans.

An abandoned hospital campus is set to bring new life to a suburban Chicago neighborhood through an ambitious rehab that is to build housing, health care, social services and educational office space through financing using both Historic Tax Credits (HTC) and New Markets Tax Credits (NMTC) equity.

Andrés Duany ranks among the world’s most influential urban planners. He is the father of “New Urbanism,” the theory of town planning and architectural design that enables walkability, transit and diverse communities.

The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, the year-end legislative package passed by the previous Congress, provided big wins for affordable housing, such as the four percent Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) floor, but it also created some gray areas that will require further guidance.

Later this month marks the one-year anniversary of when our world was turned upside down by the COVID-19 pandemic. Friday, March 13, 2020 marked the last day the team at NH&RA was all together in person at the office and the beginning of a scramble to adjust to the new reality of the pandemic world.

Tax issues are going to be a mixed bag this year, with some positive changes, like the four percent Low Income Housing Tax Credit floor, and others that are not so positive. But there’s one thing that a lot of industry observers agree on—the need for guidance from the Internal Revenue Service.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) changed some guidelines for housing. As I noted in the Housing USA column in this issue, it capped the state and local tax (SALT) deduction at $10,000, and limited the deduction on mortgage debt interest, two measures that mostly impacted wealthy homeowners.

In 2017, Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), the signature tax reform of former President Donald Trump. The law lowered income tax rates, reduced households subject to the estate tax, and generally decreased the burden that various interest groups must pay, using different tweaks and carveouts. 

The vaccines are arriving in the millions, and they work. When do we get back to normal?