Baker Tilly Offers Tax Credit Mapping Tool

The accounting and advisory firm Baker Tilly Virchow Krause has introduced an interactive online mapping tool that helps users determine if a business or development project may qualify under various criteria for the New Markets Tax Credit or Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program.

The NMTC made more than $30 billion in direct NMTC investments from 2003 to 2012 to businesses in low-income areas and leveraged a total of $60 billion, with the majority of these investments being in communities exhibiting severe economic distress, the firm noted. A total of 310 applications received under the 2013/2014 round of the program, requesting an aggregate total of $25.8 billion in allocation authority, are competing for a share of the $3.5 billion authorized. Through the LIHTC program, more than two million housing units have been placed in service between 1987 and 2011, with an average of more than 105,000 units placed in service each year.

“NMTC and LIHTC are important vehicles for investment in communities and meeting critical housing needs in our nation,” said Terri Preston, a Baker Tilly transactions team principal specializing in commercial and real estate finance. “The programs also provide vital capital our clients need to achieve their growth objectives while investing in transactions that will enrich communities throughout the U.S.”

The NMTC program provides tax credits for investment into operating businesses and development projects located in qualifying “distressed” communities. Using the 2006-2010 American Community Survey data, the mapping tool, available at bakertilly.com/tax-credit-mapping-tool, enables users to determine if a project is located in an eligible census tract based on certain distress criteria. The tool also allows multifamily housing developers to find out if a project lies within a qualifying census tract or difficult development area for LIHTC purposes, which may be helpful with application scoring and the financial feasibility of a project by possibly boosting its eligible basis.

For more information about Baker Tilly’s transaction advisory services, visit www.bakertilly.com/services/transaction-advisory.

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