The IRS is providing additional COVID-19 relief in the area of tax-exempt financing.
Rev. Proc. 2020-49, 2020-48 IRB 1, released November 4, addresses the section 147(f) public approval requirement for tax-exempt qualified private activity bonds. It extends until September 30, 2021, the period during which public approval hearings on qualified private activity bonds may take place by telephone.
In May the IRS, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, announced it would temporarily allow toll-free telephonic hearings on qualified private activity bonds. Rev. Proc. 2020-21, 2020-22 IRB 872, provided that until December 31, 2020, hearings held via teleconference would satisfy the requirement that the conference be convenient for residents of the approving governmental unit.
The extension was welcomed by the National Association of Bond Lawyers (NABL), which had requested it.
“NABL is pleased the IRS has granted an extension of relief regarding the public approval requirement for tax-exempt qualified private activity bonds,” said Christie L. Martin of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo PC, who chairs NABL’s Tax Law Committee.
“The same factors that led to the temporary relief provided in Rev. Proc. 2020-21 continue to exist in many jurisdictions,” Martin said. “For this reason, NABL wrote a letter to the IRS and encouraged our members to ask their issuer clients to do the same, asking that the time period for telephonic hearings be extended.”