On April 24, 2012 The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) designated qualified census tracts (QCTs) for 2013 for the purpose of the low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) under the Section 42 of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC). The LIHTC is a tax incentive intended to increase the availability of affordable rental housing to qualifying tenants.
The LIHTC statute provides two criteria for QCT eligibility:
1) a poverty rate of at least 25 percent in the census tract; or
2) 50 percent or more of the census tract households must have incomes below 60 percent of the area median household income. The area corresponds to a metropolitan or a non-metropolitan area. The LIHTC decree requires that no more than 20 percent of the metropolitan area population reside within designated QCTs (This limit also applies collectively to the nonmetropolitan counties in each state).