According to their new press release, the IRS has announced their approval of the issuance of the first tranche of bonds by American Native Americans. The bonds were provided in Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and allow Native American tribes to apply for a maximum of $30 million in economic development bonds to sell. The profit can then be used to spur public infrastructure works within their communities. The act provided a total of $2 billion worth of bonds in total.
In Notice 2009-51, the IRS solicited applications for the allocation of $2 billion of national bond volume limitation authority (volume cap) to issue Tribal Economic Development Bonds under section 7871(f) of the Internal Revenue Code. Section seven of the notice provides that the volume cap is to be allocated in at least two tranches, the first of which would not exceed $1 billion in total with a $30 million limitation per Indian tribal government.
The IRS received 58 applications requesting a total of $1,329,487,364.88 in volume cap available under the first tranche. Pursuant to the notice, the IRS allocated pro rata amounts of volume cap to the projects described in the applications such that the total amount allocated under the first tranche did not exceed $1 billion.