Choose Your Plan

Create a free account or subscribe for full access.

Free

^$0

forever

No credit card required

Annual Save 33%

^$10

per month

$120 billed annually

Monthly

^$15

per month

Billed monthly · cancel anytime

Get Started Free

Tools

Student Rule Wizard

Work through the LIHTC full-time student rule for a household. Mark each member's enrollment month by month, and if every member turns out to be a full-time student, step through the Section 42 exceptions and the documents each one needs. Properties layered with Section 8 can check each student against the separate HUD rule at the same time.

Certification

The student rule looks at calendar years, so the effective date sets which years are checked.

Certification effective date

Certification type

Household

This unit also has HUD Section 8 assistance (project-based or voucher)

Household members and enrollment

List everyone who will live in the unit, including children. A member is a full-time student for a year if they are full-time at a qualifying school in any part of five calendar months.

Exceptions

An all-student household can still live in a low-income unit if one of the Section 42 exceptions applies.

Section 8 student check

HUD's rule is separate from Section 42 and looks at each student in higher education on their own. A household can pass one rule and fail the other.

	LIHTC (IRC §42)	Section 8 (24 CFR 5.612)
Who is tested	The whole household: the rule applies only when every member is a full-time student	Each student on their own
Schools	Any qualifying school, including K-12	Colleges, universities, and other institutions of higher education
Part-time students	Not students	Covered
Ways out	Five statutory exceptions	Age 24 or older, veteran, married, has a dependent child, a disability with assistance on 11/30/2005, or living with parents in the assisted unit; otherwise independent and income-eligible

Record and next review

Note anything the next reviewer should know. The reminder below prints on the record.

Notes

Printed on the record and saved with it.

The Rule

A unit is not a low-income unit if every occupant is a full-time student and none of them is entitled to file a joint return, unless one of the exceptions applies (IRC §42(i)(3)(D)).
A student is someone who is a full-time student, as the school defines it, during some part of each of five calendar months in the year. The months do not have to be consecutive (IRC §152(f)(2)).
A qualifying school has a regular faculty, curriculum, and enrolled student body: K-12 schools, colleges and universities, and technical, trade, and mechanical schools. On-the-job training, correspondence schools, schools that teach only online, and night school only do not count (IRS Publication 501).
Age, employment, and disability do not change whether someone is a student.

The Exceptions

Any member is entitled to file a joint federal return.
Any member receives assistance under Title IV of the Social Security Act (TANF).
Any member was previously under the care and placement responsibility of a state foster care agency.
Any member is enrolled in a job training program receiving assistance under WIOA (formerly the Job Training Partnership Act) or a similar federal, state, or local law.
The household is made up entirely of single parents and their children, the parents are not tax dependents of anyone, and the children are not dependents of anyone other than a parent.

Things to Check

Look at the current calendar year and the next one. A household that is fine this year can become all-student in January.
Student status has to be checked at every recertification, including on properties where annual income recertifications are not required, and whenever someone moves in or out.
A household that becomes all-student during the year can put the unit out of compliance. Check your state agency's manual for how it wants that handled.
Bills to add more exceptions, such as for students who have experienced homelessness, have been introduced but not enacted. Only enacted exceptions are included here.

References

IRC §42(i)(3)(D); IRC §152(f)(2); IRS Publication 501
IRS Guide for Completing Form 8823 (student rule)
24 CFR 5.612; HUD Handbook 4350.3, Chapter 3 (Section 8 student eligibility)