[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 69 (Tuesday, April 11, 2006)]
[Notices]
[Pages 18344-18345]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E6-5242]


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DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT

[Docket No. FR-4889-N-07]


Change of Effective Date of 2004 Amendatory Notice for 
Designation of Difficult Development Areas Under Section 42 of the 
Internal Revenue Code of 1986

AGENCY: Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and 
Research, HUD.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: This notice changes the extended effective date language 
applicable to 2003 Difficult Development Areas that were not so 
designated in 2004 in HUD's November 2, 2004, notice to include the 
date of December 17, 2004, to allow its applicability to projects 
affected by a misinterpretation of the November 2, 2004, notice on the 
part of a Low-Income Housing Tax Credit-allocating agency.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: With questions related narrowly to the 
issue of the effective dates in this notice, Kurt G. Usowski, Associate 
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Affairs, Office of Policy 
Development and Research, 451 Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC 
20410-6000, telephone (202) 708-2770, or e-mail [email protected]. A text telephone is available for persons with hearing 
or speech impairments at (202) 708-9300. (These are not toll-free 
telephone numbers.)
    Copies Available Electronically: This notice is available 
electronically on the Internet (World Wide Web) at http://www.huduser.org/datasets/qct.html.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On December 19, 2003 (68 FR 7092), HUD 
published in the Federal Register the notice designating Difficult 
Development Areas (DDAs) and Qualified Census Tracts (QCTs) for 
calendar year 2004 (the 2004 notice). The 2004 notice provided that the 
lists of Difficult Development Areas are effective if the credits are 
allocated after December 31, 2003; and, in the case of a building 
described in section

[[Page 18345]]

42(h)(4)(B) of the Internal Revenue Code (Code), the lists are 
effective if the bonds are issued and the building is placed in service 
after December 31, 2003.
    HUD typically issues a notice in the Federal Register in the last 
quarter of a calendar year designating Difficult Development Areas for 
the forthcoming calendar year. HUD attempts to publish the designation 
notice early enough to allow low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) 
allocating agencies sufficient time to ensure applicant projects in 
DDAs and QCTs. HUD did not publish the 2004 notice until December 19, 
2003, which did not provide adequate time before the effective date for 
allocating agencies or applicants for tax credits or tax-exempt bond 
financing to take actions to meet the conditions necessary to capture 
the benefits of the 2003 DDA designations before they expired.
    Therefore, on November 2, 2004 (69 FR 63551), HUD published a 
notice amending the 2004 notice to extend 2003 eligibility for areas 
that were designated as 2003 DDAs in a notice published on December 12, 
2002 (67 FR 76451) (the 2003 notice) but were not so designated in the 
2004 notice. The November 2, 2004, notice (the 2004 amendatory notice) 
established an applicant for LIHTCs must submit to its credit-
allocating agency a complete application filed after December 31, 2002, 
and before December 17, 2004. (Emphasis added).
    It has come to HUD's attention that the phrasing of the end date of 
the effective time period of the extended 2003 Difficult Development 
Areas as ``before December 17, 2004,'' was misinterpreted by an LIHTC-
allocating agency in establishing its due date for applications. This 
LIHTC-allocating agency required that applications be submitted on or 
before December 17, 2004. The result was that some applications for 
LIHTC assistance for projects to be located in the extended 2003 
Difficult Development Areas came in one day past the end of the 
extended effective period of the 2003 Difficult Development Areas, 
which ended on December 16, 2004. HUD has determined that financing 
arrangements for these affordable housing developments, made in good 
faith and contingent on the applicability of the extended 2003 
Difficult Development Areas, should not be jeopardized by any confusion 
caused by misinterpretation of its notice.
    Therefore, through this notice, HUD changes the 2004 amendatory 
notice so that the effective date language pertaining to 2003 Difficult 
Development areas that were not designated 2004 Difficult Development 
Areas reads ``on or before December 17, 2004,'' everywhere such phrases 
appear in the 2004 amendatory notice.

    Dated: April 5, 2006.
Darlene F. Williams,
Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research.
[FR Doc. E6-5242 Filed 4-10-06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4210-67-P