$3.5B Round of New Markets Awards Announced

Sixty-two organizations in 44 states and the District of Columbia will receive a total of $3.5 billion in tax credit allocations through the second competitive round of the New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) Program, the Treasury Department recently announced. Several of the selected organizations have a national market perspective.

Established by Congress in 2000, NMTC attracts private-sector capital investment into urban and rural low-income areas to help finance community development projects, stimulate economic opportunity and create jobs in the selected areas. The NMTC Program permits individual and corporate taxpayers to receive a credit against federal income taxes for making qualified equity investments in investment vehicles known as Community Development Entities (CDEs).

Substantially all of the taxpayer's investment must in turn be used by the CDE to make qualified investments supporting certain business activities in low-income communities. The credit provided to the investor totals 39 percent of the initial value of the investment and is claimed over a seven-year credit allowance period.

All but six states - Kansas, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, West Virginia and Wyoming - were associated with at least one 2004 national or statewide NMTC allocatee. A list of NMTC recipients by state is available at: http://www.cdfifund.gov/docs/nmtc/2003/states_served.pdf

The CDFI Fund anticipates that applications for the third round of the NMTC Program will be available during the summer of 2004. A complete list of 2004 New Markets recipients and additional information can

be found on the CDFI Fund's website: http://www.cdfifund.gov/