How to Fill Out and Mail Form 8703: Deadlines, Lines, and Where to Send It

To fill out Form 8703, the annual certification for a tax-exempt bond-financed residential rental project, you complete two short parts on a single paper form: Part I identifies the project and the set-aside test elected when the bonds were issued, and Part II reports the unit counts that prove the project still meets that test. The completed form is due to the IRS Service Center in Ogden, Utah by March 31 covering the prior calendar year, and there is no formal extension process.¹

Download the fillable PDF from irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-8703. The current version is dated December 2021. The form is short. Getting the numbers right takes longer than typing them in.

Before You Start: What You Need

Pull these together before you open the PDF:

The original bond closing documents, which record the set-aside test the issuer elected and the date the qualified project period began.
The name, address, ZIP code, and Employer Identification Number for both the operator and the owner of the project.
The current rent roll showing every residential unit and its occupancy status at year-end.
Tenant income certifications for the calendar year being reported, including any recertifications for continuing residents.
A record of low-income unit vacancies during the year and how each vacancy was filled or held open.

If your project also claims Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, do not reuse Form 8609-A numbers without checking. The two forms use overlapping but distinct rules, and the income thresholds or unit calculations may not match.²

Part I, Line by Line

Header: Operator and Owner Identification

Enter the name, address (including ZIP code), and taxpayer identification number for both the operator and the owner of the project.¹ The taxpayer identification number is usually each entity’s EIN. If you are correcting a form you already filed, check the “Amended Return” box and attach a written explanation of what changed.

Line 1: Set-Aside Test

Line 1 asks which set-aside test applies. The bond issuer made this election when the bonds were issued, so check the original closing documents rather than guessing. Check only one box:

Line 1a, 20-50 test: at least 20 percent of units occupied by individuals with income at or below 50 percent of area median gross income (AMGI).
Line 1b, 40-60 test: at least 40 percent of units occupied by individuals with income at or below 60 percent of AMGI.
Line 1c, 25-60 test: at least 25 percent of units occupied by individuals with income at or below 60 percent of AMGI. Available only for projects in New York City.
Line 1d, 20-60 test: at least 20 percent of units occupied by individuals with income at or below 60 percent of AMGI. Available only for projects in Gulf Opportunity Zone, Midwestern disaster areas, and Hurricane Ike disaster areas.
Line 1e, 40-70 test: at least 40 percent of units occupied by individuals with income at or below 70 percent of AMGI. Same disaster-area restriction as 1d.

Most projects outside disaster areas and New York City use either the 20-50 or 40-60 test.

Line 2: Start of the Qualified Project Period

Enter the first day 10 percent of the project’s residential units were occupied. This date is typically recorded in the original bond closing or placed-in-service documents.³

Line 4: New Resident Income Question

Line 4 is a shortcut. If no new resident moved in during the year whose income exceeded the applicable limit, check “Yes” and skip Lines 6 through 10 in Part II. Stable properties with low turnover often qualify to use this shortcut.¹

Part II, Line by Line

Part II is where the rent roll and income certifications turn into numbers. Work through it in order:

Line 5: Total number of residential rental units in the project.
Line 6: Number of units occupied by individuals whose income falls at or below the applicable limit for the test you elected on Line 1 (50, 60, or 70 percent of AMGI). Do not count units that belong on Line 7.
Line 7: Number of units occupied by continuing residents whose income has risen above the limit but is still treated as qualifying under Section 142(d)(3)(B). These are tenants who qualified at move-in and whose income has since increased.
Line 8: Add Lines 6 and 7 for total low-income units.
Line 9: Divide Line 8 by Line 5 for the low-income occupancy percentage.

Line 9 is the number that decides everything. If it falls below the threshold you elected on Line 1 (20, 25, or 40 percent), the project is in post-issuance noncompliance.⁴ Under Section 142(d)(7), the filing failure by itself will not strip the bonds of their tax-exempt status, but a noncompliant Line 9 raises serious issues with the IRS and the bond issuer and can jeopardize the project’s qualified status if not corrected.⁵

Lines 10a and 10b: Deep-Rent Skewed Projects Only

Complete these lines only if the project made a deep-rent skewed election under Section 142(d)(4). On Line 10a, enter the number of low-income units occupied by individuals whose income is 40 percent or less of AMGI, including continuing residents treated as qualifying. Divide that by Line 8 and enter the percentage on Line 10b. Most projects have no such election, and these lines stay blank.

Lines 11 through 13: Vacancy Tracking

Lines 11 through 13 track low-income unit turnover during the calendar year:

Line 11: Number of low-income units vacated during the year.
Line 12: How many of those vacated units were re-occupied by new low-income residents.
Line 13: How many vacated units remained available for low-income tenants at year-end.

Where and How to Mail It

Form 8703 is paper only. Send it to:

Internal Revenue Service Service Center
Ogden, UT 84201¹

The IRS does not send a receipt or acknowledgment after processing. Use certified mail with a return receipt so you have proof of timely delivery, and keep a signed, dated photocopy in the project’s permanent compliance file along with the rent rolls and income certifications you used to prepare it.

The Deadline and What Happens If You Miss It

File by March 31 following the close of the calendar year being certified. For the 2025 calendar year, the form is due March 31, 2026.¹ The instructions do not mention any extension process, so treat the date as hard.

Section 6652(j) imposes a $100 penalty for each failure to file the certification required by Section 142(d)(7). The penalty applies per filing failure, not per unit, and is assessed on notice and demand.⁶ You can avoid it by showing the failure was due to reasonable cause and not willful neglect, meaning a legitimate reason rather than simple oversight. The larger risk is not the $100. Operators who stop filing draw IRS attention to the underlying bond transaction, and an audit can surface occupancy or rent issues far more costly than the penalty itself.

When Your Filing Obligation Ends

You keep filing every year throughout the qualified project period. It begins on the day 10 percent of the units were first occupied and ends on the latest of three dates:

15 years after the date 50 percent of the units were first occupied.
The first day no tax-exempt private activity bond issued for the project remains outstanding.
The date any project-based Section 8 assistance under the United States Housing Act of 1937 terminates.

The period ends on whichever of those comes last, not first.³ For most projects that means well over 15 years, because bonds often remain outstanding and Section 8 contracts can push the timeline further out.

If Your Project Also Claims LIHTC

Form 8703 does not replace Form 8609-A. A project financed with both tax-exempt bonds and Low-Income Housing Tax Credits files both forms, each under its own program’s rules.² The underlying tenant data overlaps, but the set-aside test on Form 8703 and the LIHTC minimum set-aside on Form 8609-A may use different income thresholds or unit calculations. Read each form’s instructions on its own terms.

1
Internal Revenue Service. Form 8703 – Annual Certification of a Residential Rental Project
2
Internal Revenue Service. About Form 8609-A, Annual Statement for Low-Income Housing Credit
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 142 – Exempt Facility Bond
4
Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency. Annual Certification of a Residential Rental Project – Form 8703
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 142 – Exempt Facility Bond
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6652 – Failure to File Certain Information Returns, Registration Statements, Etc.