New Mexico Affordable Housing Charitable Trust

A Tax Shelter that Helps New Mexicans

Imagine what it would feel like to be one car repair bill away from not being able to pay the rent. Or to be one illness away from losing your home. Or to wonder if cutbacks at work will leave your children without a safe place to sleep. Imagine what it would be like to live with chronic financial instability so severe you don’t even know where your family’s next meal is coming from.

Unfortunately, almost half of the working families in our state don’t have to imagine how that would feel. For them, it’s reality.

Consider the Facts

New Mexico has the highest number of low-income working families in the nation. Only one other state has more people who work in jobs that pay below the federal poverty level.

There's More

Forty-two percent of New Mexicans spend more than one-third of their incomes just to keep a roof over their heads.Twenty-two percent spend more than half. Eventually, 17,000 New Mexicans will find themselves homeless for at least part of a year.

Now imagine how good it would feel to help these families find quality, affordable housing. And imagine how great it would be to save money on your taxes at the same time.

You can earn 50 cents of New Mexico tax credit for every dollar you donate to the New Mexico Affordable Housing Charitable Trust — a qualified 501c3 organization administered by the New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority.You may also donate land and buildings.The money from the trust will be used to provide funding for housing developers who are committed to building beautiful, low-income, sustainable housing throughout New Mexico.

It Gets Better

MFA will leverage your donation to create even more development funding, multiplying the amount of your original contribution several times over. Those funds will translate into hundreds of new affordable housing units, which will be built in some of the neediest areas of the state.

Here’s how it works:

  • Donations must be at least $200 and not more than $1 million
  • Tax credits may be used to offset New Mexico income tax, gross receipts tax, compensating tax and withholding taxes (excluding local option gross receipts tax imposed by a municipality or county, or the government gross receipts tax)
  • Tax credits may be carried forward for five years
  • Tax credits may be sold or otherwise transferred one time and can be divided among numerous transferees
  • There is no amount of credit that must be used in a given year
  •  Donations are eligible for the charitable deduction from federal taxes

There is no application required. It’s as easy as writing a check and completing this linked form. Make checks payable to the NM Affordable Housing Charitable Trust c/o MFA. Available tax credits are limited and will be distributed on a first come, first served basis.