The Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) recently announced that it will combine the 2015 and 2016 allocation award rounds for the New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) Program. The next award round will provide $7.0 billion in allocation authority. Prior to this announcement, it was expected that the CDFI would award $3.5-5.0 billion in allocation authority for the current award round.

This is the second major announcement concerning the NMTC Program. In December of 2015, the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes (PATH) Act extended the NMTC Program for an additional five years with $3.5 billion in annual allocation authority.

Due to this change, the CDFI has amended its Notice of Allocation Availability (NOAA) for the calendar year (CY) 2015 round of the NMTC Program. The CDFI Fund will release the amended NOAA in advance of its publication in the Federal Register later this week. The NOAA will be revised to include the following:

— The combination of the CY 2015 and the CY 2016 NMTC allocation authorities into one allocation round (the "combined CY 2015 — 2016 allocation round")

— An increase in allocation authority available to award for the combined CY 2015 — 2016 round from $5.0 billion to $7.0 billion.

Implications

The CDFI Fund is not re-opening the combined CY 2015 — 2016 round for new applications. All allocation determinations will be made from the existing pool of applications submitted for the CY 2015 round. The CDFI Fund received 238 applications requesting an aggregate total of $17.6 billion in NMTC allocation authority. Currently, the CDFI Fund anticipates announcing the CY 2015 — 2016 NMTC Program allocations in late 2016.

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