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4% and 9% tax credit estimator

Annual credit equals qualified basis times the applicable percentage, and you get it for 10 years. Enter your basis, set-aside share, boost and credit price to see the credits, the equity they raise and, on a bond deal, how many bonds the 25% test needs.

Credit type
Depreciable cost of the building. Land is not depreciable, so it stays out.
The lower of the unit share and the floor-space share that is low-income.
9.00 or 4.00 floor for buildings that qualify. Change it for older or subsidized buildings.
Basis boost

A bond deal gets the 130% boost only in a QCT or DDA. Check the address.

Depreciable basis of the building before the boost.

Results appear here. The defaults are a worked example, not a market quote.

Rules as of October 24, 2026: IRC 42(a), (b)(2)-(3), (c)(1), (d)(5)(B), (f)(1) and (h)(4) as amended by Public Law 119-21, sec. 70422 (July 4, 2025); Rev. Rul. 2026-21. All sources.

How the arithmetic works

Start with eligible basis, the depreciable cost of the building. Multiply by the applicable fraction, the low-income share of units or floor space, whichever is lower. That gives qualified basis. A building in a QCT or DDA can raise eligible basis to 130% first. Multiply qualified basis by the applicable percentage for the annual credit, and by ten for the total.

Example: $15,000,000 of basis, all units set aside, 9%, no boost. Annual credit is $1,350,000 and the ten-year total is $13,500,000. At a credit price of $0.85, that raises $11,475,000 of equity, before the investor's share and any adjusters in the partnership agreement.

The 9% and 4% floors

The rates are computed each month to hit a 70% or 30% present value, but the code puts floors under them. New buildings that aren't federally subsidized get no less than 9%. The 30% credit (bond deals and acquisitions) gets no less than 4% for buildings placed in service after 2020 whose credit allocation, or bond issue, came after December 31, 2020 (Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, div. EE sec. 201). With the computed rates at 8.24% and 3.53% for November 2026, the floors are what deals use.

The bond test dropped from 50% to 25%

A 4% deal gets credits outside the state ceiling only if tax-exempt private activity bonds finance enough of the aggregate basis of the building and its land. Public Law 119-21 cut that share from 50% to 25% for buildings placed in service in taxable years beginning after December 31, 2025, when bonds from issues dated after that date finance at least 5% of the basis. Fewer bonds per deal means a state's volume cap stretches across more projects. For 2026 that cap is the greater of $135 per resident or $397,625,000 (Rev. Proc. 2025-32).

What the estimate leaves out

It ignores the first-year applicable fraction (credits in year one are prorated by month as units lease up), basis reductions for federal grants, and state limits on credits per project. Your allocating agency's QAP sets those rules, and its underwriting decides the final award.

Questions people ask

Why does the estimator default to exactly 9% and 4%?

Both rates are statutory floors. The computed monthly rates for November 2026 were 8.24% and 3.53% (Rev. Rul. 2026-21), below the floors, so the floors govern for buildings that qualify for them.

What credit price should I use?

The price your syndicator or investor quotes, in dollars of equity per dollar of credit. Prices move with the market and with the deal, so this tool does not supply one.

Does the 25% bond test apply to my 4% deal?

Only for buildings placed in service in taxable years beginning after December 31, 2025, and only if bonds from issues dated after that date finance at least 5% of the building and land basis. Otherwise the 50% test still applies.