Art Momjian of the Philadelphia Office, Chris Winter of the Wilmington Office, and Marc Kushner of the New York office represented Zagis USA, LLC in the closing of a Federal New Markets Tax Credit facility for the expansion of a cotton spinning facility in Louisiana. The expansion of the existing cotton spinning facility created additional employment in a non-metropolitant area of Louisiana. The financing qualified under the Federal New Markets Tax Credit targeted population regulations and was structured by Advantage Capital Partners.
The Future of NMTC Targeted Population Transactions
In 2011 the Service released final regulations which provide how “targeted populations” may be treated as “low income communities” where projects are eligible for the New Markets Tax Credit. Similarly the CDFI Fund amended the form of its allocation agreement to elevate the “targeted populations” criteria to one of its four primary criteria. The result is that satisfaction of the “targeted population” requirements under the Code may alternatively qualify a project as located in a “low-income community” and the satisfaction of the requirements under the allocation agreement may elevate the project to “highly distressed” status. Historically “targeted population” transactions have been challenging because of the added requirements of initially qualifying individuals as “low-income individuals” and insuring that future individuals will qualify as “low-income individuals” during the 7 year tax credit compliance period. While the final Treasury regulations and the revision to the allocation agreement will encourage the use of the “targeted population” criteria, the qualification and compliance requirements of using the “targeted populations” criteria will continue to be a hurdle for both community development entities and tax credit investors for all but the most compelling projects.