An Official Website of the Commonwealth of Kentucky
Click on the Application Portal (above) to submit your Tax Credit Applications. Please follow the Naming Requirement Guide for your files before uploading.
Click on the Payment Portal (above) to calculate and pay your Review Fee. For alternative ways to pay, please contact us.
A Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit is a voluntary, dollar-for-dollar credit toward a property owner's income taxes, based on the cost of rehabilitating a Historic Property. Rehabilitation expenses must take place within 24-months.
See below, for more information, or contact us today with your questions!
The type of Tax Credit program you're eligible for is determined by how the property is going to be used once rehabilitated. Please select the category (below) that best describes your building's use.
"Owner-occupied residential property" means a building or portion thereof (condominium or cooperative) is occupied by the owner as their principal residence. If you plan to live at this property as your primary residence, then this page is for you!
An “income-producing property" is any type of property that generates income for the owner. Income-producing properties are eligible for State and Federal Tax Credits but must have their Adjusted Basis assessed prior to applying. See more here!
Is your property tax exempt, a second residence, not a building at all, or otherwise doesn’t neatly fit into one of the other two categories? Then this webpage is for you!
We accept, review, and process applications ALL YEAR. You should start the application process as soon as you begin planning a project! The deadline for a complete project application to be considered for a specific fiscal year is April 29th. A complete project application includes the Part 1 Application, Map, Part 2 Application, Photos, Plans, and the Part 2 Review Fee.We issue Allocation Letters (which state how much funding is set aside for your specific project from our annual budget) on June 29th each year. You may only have one (1) active Tax Credit project at any given time. Each project must be separate, distinct, and finished before applying for a new Tax Credit project.
Applicants should file a Rehabilitation Tax Credit project (Part 1 and Part 2 applications) before beginning any work.If a project has already begun and meets the programmatic requirements, it may be eligible for retroactive approval. It is at the applicant's own risk to apply retroactively. For retroactive applications, the project must have at least one "QRE" (Qualifying Rehabilitation Expense) within the project's Allocation Year.However, please note that all applicable Tax Laws shall apply to retroactive applications. Please see the KRS and IRS guidance on statutory limitations for filing a tax return. If you have tax-related questions, please contact: KY Dept. of Revenue: DORTaxCredits@ky.govIRS, Tax Credits: Maria.Blake@irs.gov
Yes. Regardless of the scope of work, our photo documentation requirements include (2) photos of each exterior facade and (2) photos of each interior space, taken from opposing corners. If no work is proposed, then the "before" and "after" photos should not reflect any changes in those areas.
You must describe all scopes of work that you are undertaking at the property. Additionally, there is a 3-5 year Monitoring and Enforcement period after your Part 3 approval, where any additional work must be described to our office prior to starting the work. When we review your Tax Credit application, we review the property in its entirety and assess the whole project for conformance with our program requirements. We do not select portions of the property or portions of the project to review. Even if a certain scope of work does not qualify for Tax Credits (such as new construction or additions), we still review these scopes to ensure that the design does not jeopardize the work that qualifies for Tax Credits. We refer to this as assessing the cumulative effects of the project.
A project must have all three applications (Parts 1, 2, and 3) approved by the Kentucky Heritage Council before the awarded tax credit amount may be applied to your tax return. The awarded credit amount can be applied to the year the project was completed. Random financial reviews can be requested and applicant's should be prepared to provide documentation substantiating their QREs.The Kentucky Heritage Council does not provide any tax-related advice. Any tax-related questions should be directed to your tax-preparing professional and/or to the Department of Revenue's Tax Credit staff, at: DORTaxCredits@Ky.Gov.
The Kentucky Heritage Council does not offer or administer grants for Rehabilitation projects. However, the National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP) has several grant opportunities! The NTPF grants are often limited to a specific type of recipient, geographical region, and/or project goal. One of the grants administered through the NRHP is the Linda and Jerry Bruckheimer Preservation Fund for Kentucky, and has an application deadline of June 1st, each year. See all the NTPF grants that are available, here!
Katie Wilborn, Site Development Program AdministratorKatherine.Wilborn@ky.gov(502)-892-3446, Please note that email is the best way to reach Katie Wilborn. For additional Site Development staff contacts, please see our Staff Contact page.
Written Notice:
Please note that the KHC has followed the National Park Service's efforts to go digital. The National Park Service (NPS) created a fully electronic Tax Credit process in September 2023. As such, all State and Federal Rehabilitation Tax Credit applications MUST be submitted digitally AND on the correct electronic Application Forms (located on this website, under the "Applications & Forms" section), or they shall be deemed incomplete and the applicant notified to resubmit correctly. Furthermore, the Site Development Program will issue all State Historic Tax Credit Approvals (Parts 1, 2, and 3; also known as Forms: TC-1, -2, -3, and -4, respectively) by email to the applicant(s) from March 1, 2023 henceforth. The National Park Service provides their approval documents to the applicant for Federal Historic Tax Credit applications via email, as well. The only documents that shall be sent to the applicant via written notice in the mail, per our regulations, shall be:
Infographics highlighting the 2024 Rehabilitation Tax Credit Allocations
2024 Rehabilitation Tax Credit Allocation Data [PDF, 1.3MB]
Naming Requirement Guide
The following forms are for income-producing properties and have been prepared and provided by the National Park Service for distribution.
Transmittal Log.docx - NEW Federal REQUIREMENT!
Fee Schedules:
Application Examples:
EXAMPLE - Homeowner Project.pdf