Yes, The Thing touches everything. COVID-19 affects the muni bond world in some fairly obvious ways. The general mandate is “everybody do less.” Decreasing activity in general translates to decreased business revenues and decreased tax revenues, which means less money available to repay bonds. This has set the disclosure world ablaze, as securities lawyers ponder … Continue Reading
White smoke rises in the east! Later today (Friday), it is expected that the House-Senate Conference Committee will release a final draft of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Consistent with what was in both the Senate version (discussed here) and the House version (discussed here), it is further expected that the draft released by … Continue Reading
Timing, as they say, is everything. The tax-exempt bond rules are full of deadlines and sunsets, both before and after the issue date and before and after the project is finished. Click above for a diagram of how some of these rules work together. It’s by no means exhaustive, but certainly exhausting. Maybe you’ll find it … Continue Reading
Many of the tax-exempt bond rules apply to an “issue” of bonds. With a few exceptions, an issue of bonds includes all bonds sold by an issuer less than 15 days apart under the same plan of financing, if the debt service on those bonds is reasonably expected to be paid from the same source … Continue Reading
From time to time, issuers will use bond proceeds to make grants to accomplish a governmental purpose. For example, a State bond issuer may make grants to various counties and cities to help with the cost of local transportation improvements. Under the arbitrage regulations (Reg. 1.148-6(d)(4)), the bond proceeds are treated as spent once an issuer … Continue Reading
The flexibility to reallocate proceeds to expenditures using an accounting method other than direct tracing has been a well-recognized and much-appreciated opportunity under the allocation and accounting rules of IRC section 141. The former proposed section 141 regulations (REG-140379-02, Sept. 26, 2006) (“Proposed Regulations”), now replaced by the final section 141 regulations issued October 27, … Continue Reading
This is Part 2. Go here for Part 1. When we left off, the New Hampshire Health and Education Facilities Authority had shown the IRS Tax-Exempt Bond Division (“TEB”) its Old Man in the Mountain face on June 27, 2013, after TEB insisted that the Authority admit that it violated the tax-exempt bond rules before it would allow … Continue Reading
The IRS Appeals office has dropped the examination of nine student loan bond issues of the New Hampshire Health and Education Facilities Authority. The examination had begun after the Authority entered but then withdrew from the IRS specialized “voluntary closing agreement program” for student loan bonds. The IRS created this targeted VCAP in 2012 as a standalone … Continue Reading
On October 27, 2015, the Treasury Department published final regulations on the allocation of tax-exempt bond proceeds to mixed use projects and related topics (the “Allocation Regulations”). The Allocation Regulations finalize proposed regulations that were issued in 2006 and 2003. Click here for a copy of the Allocation Regulations, and read below for a high-level summary … Continue Reading
