Tax Credits

GAO provided information on the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program, focusing on the characteristics of tax properties and their residents.

GAO noted that: (1) under the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program, the states are authorized to allocate federal tax credits as an incentive for the private sector to develop or substantially rehabilitate rental housing for low-income households; (2) GAO's analyses are based on data collected for its 1997 report from its probability sample of Low-Income Housing Tax Credit properties; (3) because the estimates are based on data collected for a sample of about 400 properties rather than for all tax credit properties--about 4,100--the estimates are subject to sampling error; (4) the sampling error, at the 95-percent confidence level, is provided for each estimate; (5) in addition, GAO's sample was designed to provide estimates for tax credit properties and households as a whole; (6) it was not designed to provide reliable estimates for subgroups of properties or households; (7) therefore, the sampling errors associated with some of these estimates are large; and (8) GAO performed its analyses from April through November 1999 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.