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NAHB Provides Tax Credit Developer With Answers on IRS Regulations

That’s the question that Barbara Schoor, one of NAHB’s tax-credit developer members, asked the association last month. Her company, Community Investment Strategies, did not want to find itself on the wrong side of any federal regulations.

She spoke with Carmel McGuire, director of the Housing Credit Group (HCG) — a group of developers, lenders and managers of low income housing tax credit properties. McGuire didn’t find a straightforward answer in the Internal Revenue Service regulations, so she went to the source, phoning her way through the bureaucratic maze until she connected with someone at IRS who could give her a clear answer.

But because the issue had a number of different nuances, Schoor continued her information search at NAHB, consulting with Felicia Watson, for a legal analysis, Andrew Holliday for his take on the regulatory side, and Jeff Inks, for insights into related cdodes and standards issues.

“I would have had to pay hundreds and hundreds of dollars to lawyers for that kind of research,” says Schoor. “The ability to call and get immediate, accurate answers is one of the best — and most underused — benefits of my membership in NAHB.”

(By the way, the answer from the IRS was that “the preferences for ‘elderly’ and ‘disabled’ are not mutually exclusive. A low income housing tax credit property may legally permit residency only by the elderly and disabled persons of any age, and not be in violation of the Fair Housing Act.”)

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