The State of Ohio received a Major Disaster Declaration in response to the COVID-19 pandemic on March 31, 2020 (
DR-4507). While guidance related to Low-Income Housing Tax Credits and other sources of funding continues to be released by the federal government, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has indicated that
Housing Credit agencies in states with a federal Major Disaster declaration can rely on relief measures provided in
Revenue Procedure 2014-49
(Rev. Proc. 2014-49).
What does the Revenue Procedure allow?
Under Sections 6 and 7 of Rev. Proc. 2014-49, Agencies may grant extensions to both the 10% test requirement deadline (up to 6 months) and the placed in service deadline (up to 12 months) for projects whose owners cannot reasonably satisfy the deadlines of § 42(h)(1)(E) because of a Major Disaster.
Will OHFA offer the carryover allocation relief?
Yes,
the Ohio Housing Finance Agency (OHFA) will grant Carryover Allocation relief to eligible projects
on a case-by-case basis
.
Who is eligible?
To be eligible, projects must have a demonstrated and documented need and must meet the requirements outlined in Rev. Proc. 2014-49 and described below:
- Owner has a carryover allocation for a building located in a Major Disaster Area.
- Owner cannot reasonably satisfy the deadlines of § 42(h)(1)(E) because of a Major Disaster.
- For 10% test relief, the project has a 10% test deadline of January 20, 2020 or later as indicated in the carryover allocation agreement.
- For placed in service relief, the project has an Allocation Date of March 31, 2020 or earlier as indicated in the carryover allocation agreement.
I think I'm eligible. What do I do next?
- Download the Letter Template for Carryover Relief on the OHFA COVID-19 Information webpage.
- Complete the template with information specific to the eligible project.
- Requests for more than one project may not be combined in one letter- a separate letter must be submitted for each eligible project.
- Sign the letter.
- Email a .pdf of the signed letter to kbanyai@ohiohome.org.
OHFA staff will acknowledge receipt of your extension request and will be in contact with next steps once it has been reviewed and approved.
Is this different than the extensions provided for in IRS Notice 2020-23 that was published on April 10?
Yes, the extensions described above are permitted under Rev. Proc. 2014-49 and must be approved by the Housing Credit Agency.
Notice 2020-23 provides an automatic extension until July 15, 2020 for taxpayers to perform any time-sensitive actions as defined in Rev. Proc. 2018-58. The automatic extension is only for those actions that were originally due to be performed on or after April 1, 2020 and before July 15, 2020. An extension to July 15 for any of the specified items is not required to be approved by the Housing Credit Agency.
These time-sensitive actions that pertain to the Housing Credit program include:
- The 10 percent test requirement
- The 24-month period in which the requisite amount of rehabilitation expenditures has to be incurred
- The annual owner certification of compliance
- The annual tenant income certification requirement
- The requirement to notarize a binding agreement by the fifth day following the end of the month in which the binding agreement was made
- The requirement to notarize a binding agreement by the fifth day following the end of the month in which the tax-exempt bonds are issued
- The 10-year rule for claiming credits on an existing building
- The minimum set-aside requirement
- The requirement that a low-income housing commitment must be in effect as of the beginning of the year for a building to receive credit
For additional information on Notice 2020-23 and how it impacts Housing Credit as well as Housing Bond deadlines, please refer to NCSHA's post on the topic.
Questions?
Contact Diane Alecusan at
dalecusan@ohiohome.org
or Karen Banyai at
kbanyai@ohiohome.org
.
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