IRVINE, CA—WNC, a national investor in real estate and community development initiatives, announced today that the State of California Board of Equalization Legal Department has issued a memorandum that clarifies and reaffirms the property tax exemption provided by Revenue and Taxation Code section 214, subdivision (g)(2)(B) to low-income housing developers who are subject to a payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) agreement with a local government. 

“WNC applauds the California Board of Equalization for issuing this important clarification regarding property tax exemptions for qualifying developments,” said Will Cooper, Jr., President and Chief Executive Officer of WNC. “This memorandum provides much needed certainty to the affordable housing industry in a state that is in tremendous need of additional low-income housing.”

The memorandum clearly affirms that low-income housing developers subject to a payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) agreement with a local government are exempt from state property taxes per section 214(g)(2)(B) of the California Revenue and Taxation Code.   In recent years, prior informal BOE advice of a more general nature on this question had led to confusion among local assessors and the state low-income housing industry.  That confusion, and the ensuing uncertainty that may have delayed vitally-needed affordable housing developments in California, should now end.  

Steve Ryan, an attorney with Cox Castle Nicholson LLP, and one of the affordable housing experts who worked with the BOE on this fix noted, “Once industry advocates brought this issue to the BOE's attention, the Board devoted considerable resources to think through all the issues and arrive at a timely conclusion.  The guidance not only reaches the right result in following the applicable law, it does so in a manner that should improve the financing of affordable housing in California, a critical need.  Staff and the Board should be applauded for engaging with the affordable housing industry so effectively to find ways to help meet the state's affordable housing needs.”