I am applying to lease an apartment in California that rents under the "Low-income Housing Tax Credit Program (LIHTC). My source of income is S/S and secondary income from investment interest. The manager is demanding an explanation of how I derive income from this financial product. I have submitted 5 years of 1099 INT forms prepared and reported to IRS from my broker. They declare that they do not accept 1099 INT as proof of income. When I brought up the question of the source of income discrimination, the on-site manager stated that they are exempt from that law because the apartment provided rental assistance under the LIHTC program. I had not heard this before and assumed the source of income discrimination applies to all assistance programs. I have not been able to verify. Does anybody know where online this can be verified?
1 Answer
LIHTC is administered at the state level, in California by the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee. CTCAC has a compliance document here which sets out the rules. P. 31 of the document says
The owner or agents of the owner shall not discriminate in the provision of housing on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, religion, marital status, age, familial status, sexual orientation, source of income, or handicap. Additionally, owners cannot refuse to accept a prospective tenant based solely on the fact that the applicant holds a Section 8 rental voucher or certificate. All owners, managers, and staff members should be familiar with both state and federal civil rights and fair housing laws
P. 40 starts the discussion of income verification, with federal minimum requirements set out in appendix 2, and they note that CTCAC requirements may be more strict than the federal requirements. I should point out that the CTCAC language encourages landlords to be skeptical about income sources (their job is to filter out improper tax credit claims). There is nothing in the 4 documents comprising that appendix that refers to IRS form 1099 as an allowed or disallowed document. This document lists the inclusions and exclusions, under HUD regulations. It explicitly lists as included "Interest, dividends, and other net income of any kind from real or personal property". The second half of the document lists exclusions, which does not suggest that interest income is to be excluded. The CTCAC document also does not list any further restrictions on acceptable forms of income.
