The AHTCC and many of our partners are signing onto a letter to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Treasury Department to request deadline extensions and other accommodations for the Housing Credit in light of the ongoing disruption to affordable housing development, construction and operations brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Click here to sign your organization onto the letter in support of these accommodations by COB Friday, November 20. If you are not able to access the Google Form, please email Megan John to sign on.
In July, the IRS issued IRS Notice 2020-53, which provided important deadline extensions and other accommodations for the Housing Credit, including extensions of the 10 percent test and rehabilitation expenditures deadlines, compliance and review moratoriums, and other flexibilities needed in order to take into account other challenges that have emerged, like social distancing policies. However, many of these deadlines are expiring at the end of 2020, and are in need of further extension.
The National Council of State Housing Agencies (NCSHA) sent a letter to the IRS and Treasury Department on November 16 requesting that the deadlines, waivers, and other program accommodations provided in IRS Notice 2020-53 be extended to September 30, 2021, at minimum. The letter also requests four additional accommodations:
- A 12-month extension of the placed-in-service deadline for all developments allocated Housing Credits in calendar years 2018 – 2021,
- A 12-month extension of the year-end deadline for property restoration for any property that suffers a casualty loss not associated with a major disaster during 2020,
- A 12-month extension for all open noncompliance corrective action periods, and
- Guidance clarifying Housing Credit allocating agencies may conduct telephonic hearings to satisfy public approval requirements for qualified allocation plans until September 30, 2021.
We applaud the IRS’ quick action in issuing Notice 2020-53 to provide relief for Housing Credit program deadlines and requirements in response to the pandemic. The AHTCC joined 220 other organizations in sending a letter to Treasury and IRS in April in support of these accommodations, and engaged with several members of Congress who weighed in with the Treasury Department, including Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Todd Young (R-IN), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-MA) and Reps. Suzan DelBene (D-WA) and Jackie Walorski (R-IN).
It is critical that the Housing Credit program can continue to provide safe, quality affordable housing in communities nationwide, especially given the dire economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic impacting millions of low-income households, and we encourage AHTCC members to join us in urging the IRS and Treasury to issue these additional accommodations.
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