LIHTC Certification
LIHTC certification, done right the first time.
Low-Income Housing Tax Credit certification is the work of proving, on paper, that every household in your property qualifies under Section 42. One missed recertification or one mis-calculated income can put credits at risk. This guide covers what certification requires, how HOTMA changed it, and how HousingIntellect runs the entire workflow for you.
What LIHTC certification actually requires.
Every household in a tax credit property must be certified at move-in and recertified on the schedule your state housing finance agency requires, usually annually. Certification is not a formality. It is a documented chain of evidence: verified income, verified assets, a correct calculation under the current rules, the right income limit applied, the right rent charged, and a signed Tenant Income Certification that ties it all together.
The stakes are concrete. When a state monitor finds a certification that does not hold up, the finding goes to the IRS on Form 8823. Credits that funded the deal can be recaptured or disallowed, unit by unit. Investors track 8823 history the way lenders track payment history, because it predicts whether the next deal is safe.
The HOTMA Final Rule raised the bar again. Income definitions changed, the asset self-certification threshold moved to $50,000, and interim recertification triggers were rewritten. Each state agency adopted HOTMA on its own schedule, which means a multi-state portfolio can be running two different rule books at once. Certification under the wrong rules is noncompliance even when the math is perfect.
The certification checklist HousingIntellect runs on every file.
Verify every income source with third-party or source documentation
Calculate annual income under the current HOTMA or pre-HOTMA rule set
Verify and value household assets, including the $50,000 self-certification threshold
Confirm the household against the applicable income limit and set-aside
Check rent charged against the restricted rent for the unit
Generate and sign the Tenant Income Certification
Confirm student status, utility allowances, and agency-specific forms
Log the certification date so the recertification clock starts correctly
How certification runs on HousingIntellect.
1. Collect the source documents
Paystubs, award letters, asset statements, self-employment records, and third-party verifications come in by upload or direct sync from your property management system. HousingIntellect reads the documents and extracts every data point a Section 42 reviewer needs.
2. Calculate income and assets under the right rules
The engine applies HOTMA or pre-HOTMA logic based on your state agency's effective date, values assets against the $50,000 self-certification threshold, and produces a fully auditable calculation worksheet. Every input and every rule applied is visible.
3. Generate and sign the Tenant Income Certification
A state-correct TIC is drafted from the calculation. Your reviewer sees the worksheet, the sources, and the certification side by side, approves, and collects signatures. The file moves to a continuously audit-ready state.
4. Recertifications and audit prep run on schedule
Annual recertifications schedule themselves within each agency's window. The Available Unit Rule clock starts the moment a household crosses 140% of the limit. When a monitor schedules a visit, the evidence pack for any unit is one click away.
Built for multi-state portfolios.
Every state housing finance agency has its own Qualified Allocation Plan, forms, monitoring procedures, and HOTMA effective date. HousingIntellect maintains state-specific rule sets for all 50 states plus DC and Puerto Rico, so a property in Georgia is certified under Georgia DCA rules while a property in California follows TCAC, in the same workspace. Your team sees one queue with the right rules already applied per asset.
LIHTC certification FAQ
LIHTC certification is the process of documenting that a household in a Low-Income Housing Tax Credit property qualifies under IRS Section 42 and the state housing finance agency's Qualified Allocation Plan. At move-in and at every annual recertification, the owner must verify the household's income and assets, calculate annual income under the current rules, confirm the unit meets rent restrictions, and produce a signed Tenant Income Certification (TIC). The TIC and its supporting documents are the record a state monitor or the IRS reviews when deciding whether the owner's credits stand.
See certification run on your own files.
Book a 45-minute demo. We will walk a real certification workflow from source documents to a signed, audit-ready Tenant Income Certification.
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