On Wednesday, January 31, 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the bill called the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act. Contained in this bill is a significant reduction to the required amount of Section 142(d) Qualified Residential Project Bonds that must be issued to obtain the 4% Low Income Housing Tax Credit. … Continue Reading
Following in the footsteps of pioneers such as Matthew Lesko, the White House has released a guidebook to the funding available under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. (It should be at least somewhat more authoritative than Gobs and Gobs of Free Stuff,[1] at least as it pertains to the legislation in question.) The approach in the … Continue Reading
On November 4, 2020, we all thought that the COVID-19 pandemic was going to be long over by now. We certainly did not think we were going to get so far down the Greek alphabet of variants of this virus. And, this author certainly did not think that she was going to have to keep … Continue Reading
Do you feel it? Good vibes for tax-advantaged bond legislation permeate the air around us. White smoke emerged from the White House on June 24, signifying that the President and key Senate leaders had reached a deal on an infrastructure bill. The deal includes “public private partnerships, private activity bonds, direct pay bonds and asset … Continue Reading
On the 396th day of March, 2020 (or March 31, 2021 for those who have returned to some semblance of normalcy), President Joe Biden outlined his vision for a new economy. Specifically, President Biden focused on the American Jobs Plan as a $2.25 trillion investment in the United States that “will create millions of good … Continue Reading
On March 31, 2021, President Biden officially unveiled the planned $2.25 trillion infrastructure bill, marking the beginning of what promises to be a lengthy debate over the appropriate size and scope of infrastructure investment and economic recovery in the country. Who better to guide you through it than our partner, Rodney Slater, former Secretary of … Continue Reading
We invite you to listen to our colleagues, Rep. Bill Shuster, former Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and Secretary Rodney Slater, former U.S. Secretary of Transportation, in conversation with Paul Burton of The Bond Buyer about the prospects for federal infrastructure legislation. The conversation will happen next Monday, March 15, at 12:30 pm eastern. You can … Continue Reading
In a complaint filed directly with the U.S. Supreme Court under its original jurisdiction,[1] New Hampshire has sued Massachusetts for attempting to tax residents of the Granite State who normally work in Massachusetts but are working at home during the pandemic. Read Mike’s comments on the case in The Bond Buyer here ($).… Continue Reading
The IRS has had a busy start to 2021! Guidance continues to pour forth as the change in Administration approaches. On January 4, the IRS released Revenue Procedure 2021-10, which provides issuers with updated procedures for obtaining review from the IRS Office of Appeals of proposed adverse determinations and rebate refund rejections by the IRS … Continue Reading
We just wanted to remind everyone that today, December 16, 2020 at 4:00 pm Eastern Squire Patton Boggs’ and the Association of Public Finance Professionals (APFP) of the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia are hosting a virtual event to remember! The event will feature insights from our colleagues, former Congressman and former Chairman of … Continue Reading
Remember earlier this year when the novelty of working from home hadn’t worn off, when every day wasn’t Groundhog Day, when we hadn’t run out of Netflix to watch, and when we were all concerned about how to satisfy the in-person TEFRA hearing requirement for tax-exempt private activity bonds in the midst of a pandemic … Continue Reading
Please join Squire Patton Boggs on Friday, May 8, at 12 pm Eastern time for a one-hour webinar covering the Federal Reserve’s Municipal Liquidity Facility, the CARES Act, and Chapter 9. Click here to register. The webinar will be led by our colleagues Karol Denniston, Alethia Nancoo, and David Stewart (former Majority Staff Director for the … Continue Reading
As described in our previous post, NABL hasn’t been binge watching Tiger King and binge eating like the rest of us during this time at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, on March 25, 2020, NABL asked the IRS to adopt a proposed notice that would address two municipal bond concerns caused by the pandemic: … Continue Reading
The IRS has extended to July 15, 2020 the deadline for certain time-sensitive actions for tax-exempt bonds, including filing Form 8038 and paying rebate, if the deadline originally fell on or after April 1, 2020 and before July 15, 2020.… Continue Reading
As we’ve said, The Thing touches everything. Indeed, to quote No Country For Old Men: “It’s the dismal tide. It’s not the one thing.” State and local governments are no exception. Our public policy and public finance groups have a four-point action plan for state and local governments to start to pick up the pieces. We’re … Continue Reading
NABL has asked the IRS to issue a Notice that would allow issuers to hold TEFRA public hearings for private activity bonds by phone and that would allow issuers to purchase and sit on their own debt through the end of the COVID-19 crisis without extinguishing the debt, even if the issuer doesn’t use its … Continue Reading
With stories about stimulus and relief from COVID-19 swirling, municipal bond industry groups are springing into action to help Congress and Treasury help us all. NABL sent a letter on Sunday to Congress and Treasury, asking for broad relief on a number of tax topics affected by COVID-19. The request is stated in broad strokes … Continue Reading
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
Earlier this month, we described Senate Bill 1763, which would authorize a new type of exempt facility bond to be issued for “qualified carbon capture facilities.” Well, on July 19, 2019, freshman House Republican Tim Burchett of Tennessee proposed the Carbon Capture Improvement Act, H.R. 3861, the text of which is identical to the Senate … Continue Reading
Treasury has announced that, after what seemed like a forever long hiatus, effective August 5, 2019, at 12:00 noon eastern, it will reopen the SLGs window. Treasury can reopen the SLGS window because of the enactment of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2019, which suspends the application of the federal debt ceiling until July 31, … Continue Reading
On May 22, 2019, the IRS issued IRS Notice 2019-39 (the “Original Notice”), which sought to bring efficiency and uniformity to guidance on the current refunding of certain bonds issued under current and future “targeted” tax-exempt bond programs. While the Original Notice set forth helpful guidance on the tax-exempt current refunding of bonds issued under … Continue Reading
To promote the provision of disaster relief and the development (or redevelopment) of economically distressed areas, Congress will at times enact targeted bond programs that authorize the issuance of specialized tax-exempt bonds. Tax-exempt targeted bond programs frequently contain both a cap on the amount of tax-exempt bonds that can be issued under the program and … Continue Reading
The Opportunity Zone program was created by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (which we have previously written about here, here and here), to allow investors the “opportunity” to defer paying tax on gains from selling property by investing the proceeds from the sale into an Opportunity Zone Fund. The IRS issued a first … Continue Reading
On April 3, 2019, the Internal Revenue Service issued Rev. Proc. 2019-17, which provides that a qualified residential rental project will not fail the public use element of Internal Revenue Code Section 142(d), and therefore can be financed with exempt facility bonds (assuming, of course, that other requirements are satisfied[1]), if the project contains units that … Continue Reading
