Renting Above Minimum Set-Aside

Q I’m leasing up a brand-new, 80 percent tax credit building—that is, eight of my 10 units must be rented to qualified low-income households. My marketing brought in nine qualified low-income households. If I rent to nine qualified low-income households instead of eight, can the owners claim more tax credits?

A No. The owners may claim only the credits allocated to them by your state housing credit agency; if eight tax credit units satisfies your minimum set-aside for the building, then that’s all you need to rent to satisfy the owners. Indeed, from a business standpoint, it would be a bad move to rent the ninth unit at a restricted rent if you could rent it at market rent.