Virginia Law

The department shall allocate the Virginia low-income housing tax credit up to the maximum amount allowed during any calendar year as specified by § 36-55.63 of the Code of Virginia. The department shall review each application and, based on the application and other information available to the department, shall assign points to each project as follows:

1. Any project that qualifies as a "hard-to-develop" project as defined by the Virginia Housing Development Authority in the federal low-income housing tax credit application manual. (40 points)

2. Any project that is located within, or that if awarded a state low-income housing credit will locate within, a Virginia Enterprise Zone, a Virginia Housing Revitalization Zone or a "revitalization area" as defined by the Virginia Housing Development Authority, provided the development of low-income housing within such zones or areas was included as part of the application under the above-referenced community development programs. (40 points)

3. All other qualified low-income housing projects not qualifying for points in subdivision 1 or 2 of this section. (20 points)

4. One bonus point for each residential unit reserved for households at or below 40% of area median income, as determined by the application for federal low-income housing tax credits (up to a maximum of 40 bonus points).

The state credit allocated may be used any time during the five-consecutive-year period beginning with the first year the federal low-income housing tax credit is claimed for the project. The allowable amount of the Virginia low-income housing tax credit for any qualified applicant shall be the lesser of (i) 20% of the amount of the federal low-income housing tax credit allowed during the five-year period or (ii) the amount certified as feasible by the Virginia Housing Development Authority. Upon assignment of points to all applications, the department shall rank the applications based on the number of points assigned. Those applications assigned more points will be ranked higher than those applications assigned fewer points. Applications with the highest rankings shall receive allocations up to the allowable amount prior to any allocations to lower ranking applicants.

Allocations will be made to projects up to the statutory maximum amount of tax credits allowed during the calendar year.

In the event of a tie in the number of points assigned to two or more projects where a full allocation to each applicant with that point total would exceed the maximum tax credit amount authorized by statute during any calendar year, the department shall calculate a pro rata reduction of the amount of tax credit to be allocated to each approved applicant. This reduction shall be made to assure that the established maximum tax credit allocation is not exceeded. The pro rata reduction will not apply to or affect allocations to projects with a higher point total.