The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) announced today that it received a total of 230 applications under the 2017 round of the New Markets Tax Credit Program (NMTC Program). The NMTC Program encourages economic development in low-income and distressed communities by making tax credit allocations available to Community Development Entities (CDEs) for targeted investments in eligible areas.
The CDEs that applied under the 2017 round are headquartered in 42 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Guam. The applicants requested an aggregate total of $16.2 billion in NMTC allocation authority, over four-and-a-half times the $3.5 billion in authority available for the 2017 round.
The NMTC Program was established by Congress in December of 2000 and permits individual and corporate taxpayers to receive a credit against federal income taxes for making qualified equity investments in CDEs. The credit provided to the investor totals 39 percent of the cost of the investment and is claimed over a seven-year period. Substantially all of the taxpayer’s investment must in turn be used by the CDE to make qualified investments in low-income communities. Successful applicants are selected only after a competitive application and rigorous review process that is administered by the CDFI Fund.
Through the first thirteen rounds of the NMTC Program, the CDFI Fund has made 1,032 awards totaling $50.5 billion in tax credit allocation authority. This $50.5 billion includes $3 billion in Recovery Act Awards and $1 billion of special allocation authority to be used for the recovery and redevelopment of the Gulf Opportunity Zone.
For more information about the NMTC Program, visit the CDFI Fund’s website at www.cdfifund.gov/nmtc.