The Impact of Tax Reform on the Federal Historic Tax Credit One Year Later

Historic Tax Credit Coalition leaders and their advisors were on the phone with Hill staff arguing for a better deal than the 10 percent historic tax credit (HTC) offered by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. The cost of retaining the 20 percent credit had been calculated at $3.7 billion over 10 years. We were challenged to find this amount of savings by the end of the day, from IRC Section 47 alone. 

Dominium has been working on its Ft. Snelling HTC/LIHTC affordable housing project in Minnesota for some time. Faced with a five-year federal and Minnesota state HTC, Dominium was able to secure $29 million in affordable housing bonds to help shore up the financing gap. The developer was also successful in advocating in the state legislature for a grandfathering of the previously one-year Minnesota credit for the Ft. Snelling transaction. Jeff Huggett plans to look for new projects that pencil at 82 cents and target deals that also provide other incentives such as the NMTC and state HTCs. 

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