DC increases the submission requirements for tax abatement requests

The "wild wild west" nature of land development and tax abatements gets a little less wild as the City Office of Tax and Revenue implements new information requirements on tax abatement requests. Before people could just get a Councilmember to submit legislation, which would trigger the process.

It might still be a very murky process, but this makes it easier to judge and prioritize requests.

See "D.C. tax abatements now demand heaps of information" and "Tax abatements, exemptions to face new scrutiny in D.C." from the Washington Business Journal, along with the document Submission Requirements for Parties Seeking a New Real Property Tax Abatement or Exemption.

From the second article:

With the start of fiscal 2012 on Oct. 1, applications for abatements and tax exemptions must be accompanied by their terms, value, a financial analysis and a summary of the proposed community benefits. That includes the number of affordable housing units to be developed, number of jobs that will be created.

In addition, the D.C. chief financial officer must offer an advisory opinion on whether or not a development project likely could be financed without the District’s financial aid. And the developer must document its efforts.