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On Nov. 7, HUD submitted its Fiscal Year 2012-2013 Annual Report on the State of Fair Housing in America to Congress. The report includes information regarding the prevalence of different types of discrimination in housing and HUD’s actions to combat discrimination.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) released on Nov. 21 the final version of its strategic plan for fiscal years 2015-2019. The FHFA was established by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA) and is responsible for the effective supervision, regulation, and housing mission oversight of the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac), and the Federal Home Loan Bank System, which includes 12 Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLBs) and the Office of Finance.
On Oct. 22, the federal government announced that the Social Security Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for 2015 will be 1.7 percent. This is up from the 2014 increase of 1.5 percent, but less than the 3.6 percent increase of 2012. Next year will mark only the eighth time the COLA has been less than 2 percent. Payments will begin in January and will also affect persons receiving SSI, VA pensions, Civil Service Pensions, and Railroad Retirement.
The District of Columbia’s fiscal year (FY) 2015 Budget Support Emergency Act, which became effective on Oct. 1, 2014, implements a low-income housing tax credit for the District of Columbia. As a result of the legislation, the Department of Housing and Community Development will make available $1 million in LIHTCs in FY 2015. For years following 2015, the available allocation amount will be equal to the District of Columbia’s federal LIHTC cap.
The Treasury Department’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released an audit of the Missouri Housing Development Commission regarding payment under the Section 1602 cash grant exchange program. The Section 1602 program was enacted by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
Each year the IRS allocates a certain amount of Low-Income Housing Tax Credits to each state using a formula allocation method, which is based on a state’s population, and is established in Section 42 of the Internal Revenue Code. In addition to the credits allocated by this formula method, each year, states are also permitted to allocate to the state housing finance agency (HFA) LIHTCs that were unused by recipients of tax credits allocated in a prior year, and LIHTCs from the prior calendar year that were not previously allocated by the HFA.
At the end of 2013, the Social Security Administration (SSA) posted information that it intended to stop providing paper benefit/award letters from the local SSA offices beginning in February 2014. The rationale was that requiring individuals to use the online technological investments that SSA made would help meet increasing service demands despite shrinking budgets.
The IRS recently released two revenue procedures that provide guidance about temporary disaster relief for qualified developments that were financed by the LIHTC or tax-exempt bonds. The new revenue procedures modify similar guidance that the IRS issued in 2007, in Revenue Procedure 2007-54.
On Aug. 15, HUD published a notice in the Federal Register requesting comments on the proposed Fair Market Rents (FMRs) for fiscal year (FY) 2015. The primary uses of FMRs are to: (1) determine payment standard amounts for the Housing Choice Voucher program; (2) determine initial renewal rents for some expiring project-based Section 8 contracts; (3) determine initial rents for housing assistance payment contracts in the Moderate Rehabilitation Single Room Occupancy program; and (4) serve as a rent ceiling in the HOME program. Final FMRs for FY 2015 will become effective Oct. 1, 2014.
The IRS, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork, invites the general public and other federal agencies to comment on proposed and continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. Currently, the IRS is soliciting comments concerning Form 8823, Low-Income Housing Credit Agencies Report of Noncompliance or Building Disposition.
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