Conservancy Staff Obtain State Income Tax Credits for Qualified Property Owners
As part of the services that come with loans from the Historic Properties Fund for restoration work, Conservancy staff prepare and submit applications to the State that have resulted in substantial state income tax credits for homeowners. In 17 projects to date, owners have recouped an average of $37,900 per building – a total of over $644,000 in state income tax credits for approximately $3.5 million of restoration work.
New York State enacted the Historic Homeownership Rehabilitation Tax Credit Program in 2010 to foster investment in historic, owner-occupied residential properties. The Program provides a state tax credit for 20% of qualifying rehabilitation costs, up to a credit value of $50,000, for restoration work on historic residential buildings. The program applies to qualified condominium and cooperative apartments, too. There is another rehabilitation tax credit program in New York State for commercial historic properties.
For more information on both programs, go to http://nysparks.com/shpo/tax-credit-programs/
In the early stages of Fund loan projects, Conservancy staff verify that the property is in an eligible census district. If it is, they work with the owner to fill out and submit the three-parts of the application to the New York State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) which administers the program: Part 1 confirms a project’s eligibility; Part 2 sets forth a more detailed description of the project work and its cost; and Part 3 evidences completion and requests certification under the program from SHPO.
In a recent project in the Crown Heights North Historic District, the owners invested approximately $200,000 to restore the façade and stoop of their row house home. The $40,000 state income tax credit they received was a welcome benefit.
Since the inception of the Homeowner Program, Conservancy staff have shepherded 17 applications through the approval process for Fund projects in Brooklyn (Crown Heights, Clinton Hill, Ditmas Park, and Stuyvesant Heights Historic Districts), Manhattan (Greenwich Village, Manhattan Avenue, and Sugar Hill Historic Districts), and Queens (Jackson Heights Historic Districts).