NCSHA Recommends Improvements to IRS Housing Credit Disaster Relief Guidance

Today, NCSHA sent comments to the IRS on how it can improve its Low Income Housing Tax Credit (Housing Credit) disaster relief guidance provided in Revenue Procedures 2014-49 and 2014-50. NCSHA’s letter is in response to IRS’s request for comments in Notice 2018-17, which also provided additional guidance on Housing Credit disaster relief specific to Puerto Rico’s recovery from Hurricane Maria.

Specifically, NCSHA urged IRS to expand its disaster relief guidance to:

• Address the treatment of residents returning to an affected property following a natural disaster, including whether the property owner is required to recertify residents before they can return to the property, and if so how to handle residents who may be over-income upon their return if they were income-qualified upon initial occupancy;
• Clarify that owners must maintain compliance in non-damaged units if only a portion of the property is affected by natural disaster (for example flooding that impacts only the ground floor of a development); and
• Consider the issue of destroyed records following a natural disaster—whether an owner is required to attempt recreation of destroyed records, and if not, the relief provided to those owners in this case.

Contact NCSHA’s Jim Tassos with questions.