Practice Area · Tax Credits

Federal tax credit finance.
Transactional depth across six programs.

Structuring, closing, and compliance for New Markets, Low-Income Housing, Historic, Renewable Energy, Opportunity Zone, and Employee Retention Credits. A transactional practice built on three decades of work with developers, investors, community development entities, syndicators, and public-sector sponsors.

A practice area built over thirty years.

Federal tax credits are not a peripheral specialty. They are infrastructure for how affordable housing, historic preservation, clean energy, and community economic development actually get financed in the United States. Capital flows into these programs because Congress wrote the Internal Revenue Code to make it flow — but the legal and accounting scaffolding that allows a specific project to qualify, close, and deliver credits to investors is highly technical work. It requires lawyers who have done the transactions before.

Mr. Lozano's career in this area includes leading the legal and drafting work that secured $180 million in New Markets Tax Credit allocation authority from the U.S. Treasury's CDFI Fund, subsequently deploying those credits across transactions exceeding $1.1 billion in layered tax credit structures. That work covered New Markets, Low-Income Housing, Historic Rehabilitation, and Renewable Energy Tax Credits — often stacked together in the same development to close financing gaps that no single program could bridge.

Today the firm brings that depth to Texas developers, sponsors, and investors. The work ranges from structuring new transactions to unwinding problems in transactions someone else built. It is not volume practice. It is senior attorney practice, and it is handled by a single lawyer who has spent three decades in this part of the code.

Career Record

Measured by what closed.

$180M
New Markets Tax Credit allocation authority secured from the U.S. Treasury's CDFI Fund through a competitive application process
$1.1B+
In subsequently orchestrated tax credit transactions using layered NMTC, LIHTC, Historic, and Renewable Energy structures
$22M
Additional New Markets Tax Credits competitively secured in a separate allocation, deployed to community-oriented real estate projects

Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. These figures represent aggregate transactional experience and competitive Treasury allocations from Mr. Lozano's tenure as Chief Executive Officer and General Counsel of Portland Family of Funds (2003–2007), Urban Development and Finance, and related entities.

The six programs the firm covers.

Tax credit work is usually discussed one program at a time. In practice, most sophisticated transactions combine two or three. The firm handles each on its own and in combination.

New Markets Tax Credits (NMTC)

The NMTC program provides a 39% federal tax credit, taken over seven years, to investors who make qualified equity investments in Community Development Entities (CDEs) that in turn finance qualified businesses and real estate projects in low-income communities. The work includes CDE qualification and certification, allocation applications to the CDFI Fund, Qualified Equity Investment structuring, Qualified Low-Income Community Investment loan documentation, leverage loan structures, compliance over the seven-year credit period, and eventual exit. Mr. Lozano's involvement in the program dates to its early years.

Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC)

The largest federal subsidy for affordable rental housing, administered through state housing finance agencies under a competitive 9% allocation and a non-competitive 4% program tied to tax-exempt bond financing. The work covers partnership structuring between developers and syndicated investors, compliance period tracking, qualified contract provisions, right-of-first-refusal mechanics at year fifteen, and layering with other sources such as HOME, CDBG, and private lending. Often combined with Historic Tax Credits in adaptive reuse projects.

Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credits

A 20% federal credit for the rehabilitation of certified historic structures, administered jointly by the National Park Service, the State Historic Preservation Office, and the IRS. The work requires careful attention to the Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 certification process, rehabilitation standards under the Secretary of the Interior's guidelines, pass-through structures for tax credit investors, and in many cases coordination with state historic tax credit programs. Frequently layered with NMTC or LIHTC in urban redevelopment.

Renewable Energy Tax Credits — Investment and Production

The Investment Tax Credit (ITC) and Production Tax Credit (PTC) provide federal subsidy for solar, wind, and other clean energy projects. The work covers project company structuring, partnership-flip and sale-leaseback arrangements, tax equity investor negotiation, developer carry structures, prevailing wage and apprenticeship compliance under the Inflation Reduction Act, and interaction with direct pay and transferability provisions. Mr. Lozano's prior work in this area included syndicated Investment Tax Credit and Production Tax Credit transactions supporting solar, wind, and clean-energy projects in partnership with film studios and federal agencies.

Opportunity Zones

The Opportunity Zone program, enacted by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, provides capital gains deferral and, for sufficiently long-held Qualified Opportunity Fund investments, permanent exclusion of post-investment appreciation. The work includes Qualified Opportunity Fund formation, Qualified Opportunity Zone Business structuring, substantial improvement calculations, working capital safe harbor planning, and exit structuring. Particularly useful when combined with Historic Tax Credits in urban adaptive reuse or with LIHTC in targeted affordable housing.

Employee Retention Credits

The Employee Retention Credit, enacted during the pandemic and heavily litigated since, remains an active area of IRS scrutiny. Work in this area includes advising employers on the qualification standards, defending claims under audit, responding to IRS notices of disallowance, and where appropriate, representation through Appeals and the United States Tax Court. The firm does not pursue volume ERC work but handles matters for clients already represented on other tax issues.

Layered tax credit transactions are not something you learn by reading the Internal Revenue Code. You learn them by closing them — and then closing a hundred more.

Who the firm works with.

Representative Matters

Thirty years of closed transactions.

Representative matters in federal tax credit finance will be listed here as the firm finalizes client and co-counsel disclosure.

Mr. Lozano's prior practice included the legal and drafting leadership on the Portland Family of Funds — a $350 million public/private real estate development fund — through the U.S. Treasury CDFI Fund's competitive New Markets Tax Credit application process; structuring and closing of layered NMTC, LIHTC, Historic, and Renewable Energy transactions exceeding $1.1 billion in the aggregate; and counsel to developers, municipalities, and investors across the programs described above.

This section will be populated with engagement-specific matters as the firm's Texas practice matures. Prior results from earlier roles are described above; they do not guarantee a similar outcome on any specific new engagement.
If You Are Structuring A Transaction

Tax credit work is senior attorney work.

The firm handles new structuring, ongoing compliance, and workout matters across all six programs. Engagements are scoped individually, with flat fees where scope permits and hourly billing for open-ended matters.

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Related at the firm.

Tax credit work rarely stands alone. Many transactions involve entity formation, real estate closing mechanics, partnership drafting, and coordination with estate and succession planning for principals.