The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) released today updated Eligibility Data for the New Markets Tax Credit Program (NMTC Program). The update of this information—based on more recent, Census Bureau 2016-2020 American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimates data—is part of a larger effort to ensure that the data used to determine the eligibility for CDFI Fund programs is current and reflective of current socioeconomic and demographic information. 

This announcement provides additional updates regarding the documents and specific CDFI Fund programs described below.

• New Markets Tax Credit Program Low-Income Community (LIC) Data is now available. The updated LIC data may be used as of September 1, 2023. The CDFI Fund has also updated the list of High Migration Rural Tracts. Information on the transition from 2011-2015 ACS data to 2016-2020 ACS data for the NMTC Program is available on the CDFI Fund website here. The transition period  is based on the date the Qualified Low Income Community Investment (QLICI) closes. The updated data is available in both Awards Management Information System (AMIS) for geocoding transactions for the Allocatee Transaction Level Report (TLR) submission and CDFI Information Mapping System (CIMS) for identifying whether potential NMTC investments are located in NMTC-eligible LICs.
   
• Island Areas 2020 update is tentatively scheduled for release in December 2023. The US Census Bureau released the 2020 Island Areas Decennial Census information and data files in July 2023. The CDFI Fund is in the process of reviewing this information to assemble the individual program eligibility data files. The Island Areas covers American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and the US Virgin Islands. Entities should refer to their program specific policies on how to proceed until the new Island Areas data files are released.

For questions related to the ACS transition, contact the CDFI Fund’s Office of Financial Strategies and Research via email at CDFI-FinancialStrategiesandResearch@cdfi.treas.gov, with the subject line "ACS Question."

Related Materials

• NMTC Census Transition FAQs
• NMTC 2016-2020 ACS Eligibility File