Income Calculations

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Personal retirement accounts can be tricky to navigate when completing income certifications. They can be considered assets or income depending on if the resident has access to the retirement account funds and if distributions are regular and periodic or sporadic. Generally, when the regular distributions from retirement accounts begin, the accounts are no longer considered assets and the regular distributions from retirement accounts are considered income.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) recently announced that the Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits for approximately 70 million Americans will increase 8.7 percent in 2023. The 8.7 percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) will begin with benefits payable to more than 64 million Social Security beneficiaries in January 2023. The Social Security Act ties the annual COLA to the increase in the Consumer Price Index as determined by the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

When a household gets a one-time payment such as an inheritance or a settlement award you must follow special HUD rules for such payments when certifying and recertifying household income. In general, you must treat these payments, known as “lump-sum payments” or “lump-sum receipts,” as part of a household’s assets. But you must count certain types of lump-sum payments as income. And in certain situations, you don’t include lump-sum payments in your calculations at all. We’ve put together five dos and don’ts about lump-sum payments.

Starting on July 1, the standard mileage rate used to deduct eligible business trips in a vehicle on tax returns increases by 4 cents to 62.5 cents per mile, according to the IRS. The new rate applies to trips during the second half of 2022.

Even though HUD doesn’t administer the tax credit program, the tax credit law requires owners and managers to use the HUD rules for calculating household income at a tax credit site. As such, when certifying or recertifying housing income, you must include any income the household's assets generate. But, according to HUD rules, how you calculate the income from assets depends on whether the cash value of those assets is more than $5,000 or is $5,000 or less.

On April 18, HUD released the 2022 income limits for the Multifamily Tax Subsidy Projects (MTSP) housing programs. MTSPs, a term coined by HUD, are all Low-Income Housing Tax Credit projects under Section 42 of the Internal Revenue Code and multifamily projects funded by tax-exempt bonds under Section 142 (which generally also benefit from LIHTC). These projects may have special income limits established by statute. You can find the income limits at www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/mtsp.html.

On Dec. 17, 2021, the IRS issued Notice 22-03, which contains the 2022 standard mileage rates used to calculate the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business, charitable, medical, or moving purposes. The agency said it rates the standard mileage for business use based on an annual study of the fixed and variable costs of operation. According to the IRS, standard mileage rates are up slightly from 2021 in two categories.

On Oct. 13, the Social Security Administration (SSA) announced that the Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits for approximately 70 million Americans will increase 5.9 percent in 2022. This is the largest increase in 40 years.

HUD’s Office of Multifamily Housing Programs recently issued guidance regarding the treatment of unemployment benefits under the 2021 Consolidated Appropriations Act and the monthly child tax credit under the American Rescue Plan of 2021 (ARPA).

On April 1, HUD released the 2021 income limits for the Multifamily Tax Subsidy Projects (MTSP) housing programs. MTSPs, a term coined by HUD, are all Low-Income Housing Tax Credit projects under Section 42 of the Internal Revenue Code and multifamily projects funded by tax-exempt bonds under Section 142 (which generally also benefit from LIHTC). These projects may have special income limits established by statute. You can find the income limits at www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/mtsp.html.