Foss & Company: Celebrating 40 Years in the Tax Credit Marketplace
As Foss & Company reaches its 40th year in business, the company celebrates not only its longevity, but its commitment to excellence, a driving force behind its success. From its inception to the present day, Foss & Company has overcome challenges and pioneered solutions to become a leading organization in the tax credit space. This success can be attributed to its resilience, adaptability to the marketplace and commitment to providing exceptional services to its institutional investor and developer clients.
The company’s adaptability has been key to its survival and growth in tax credit space. Starting out, Foss & Company acted primarily as a broker, connecting institutional investors to developers. However, now the company manages almost 95% of its investments through its investment funds, adding tremendous value to investors. This is made possible by our dedicated acquisitions and underwriting teams and asset managers who carefully evaluate projects using market research, capital structure, performance history, budgets, and more. Projects brought into our funds undergo rigorous due diligence through our in-house experts, external consultants, and third-party certifications. Our asset management team oversees projects once added to a fund and provides extensive reporting services, monitoring each project through deal exit. This evolution in investment strategy reflects Foss & Company’s ability to pivot and adapt to market changes while staying true to its mission of creating value for institutional investors and developers alike.
The company’s agility and dynamic approach combined with tremendous institutional knowledge are what truly make Foss & Company stand out. Encouraging an entrepreneurial and solution-oriented workplace, Foss & Company has more flexibility to identify gaps in the marketplace, coming up with creative solutions and product offerings that lead to more opportunities for engagement. Some examples of this have included creating State Tax Credit Funds for our investors that have a more drilled down viewpoint on where they would like their investments to make an impact as well as a Foss Bridge Credit Fund, which offers developers bridge funding for timing gaps in historic restorations. These tailored solutions create great value to partners and stakeholders and have led to a reputation as a trusted and reliable partner in the tax credit space. Foss & Company’s adaptability and specialized knowledge has not only helped the company grow but also enabled it to overcome challenges.
Over the years, Foss & Company, as well as the tax credit market in general, have faced make obstacles. One significant challenge Foss & Company has faced was the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which cut the tax rate from 35% to 21%. For a company whose business depends on the tax appetite of institutional investors, this tax cut presented a challenge. However, the most significant challenge came from the Act’s initial language, which would have repealed the federal historic tax credit, a significant portion of Foss & Company’s business. Foss & Company and the rest of the tax credit industry had to demonstrate the community impact, job creation, and tax dollars generated from the federal historic tax credit to show it should stay part of the tax code. Eventually, this tax credit became a five-year credit, which drew new investor interest and broadened Foss & Company’s investor base. This allowed Foss & Company to act as a tax credit investor in many significant historic rehabilitation projects that may not have otherwise been financed. This highly specialized knowledge, along with the ability to adapt to the evolving marketplace, are some of the main things that set Foss & Company apart in the marketplace and has contributed to its continued growth.
The success of Foss & Company is also evident in the company’s significant milestones over the decades, including:
- Deploying over $8 billion of tax credit equity and having over $1 billion in tax credits currently under management
- Working with several institutional clients who have invested in a variety of Foss funds over a decade long, a testament to the quality of our work and our knowledge in this space
- Crossing the 40-employee mark, with a large number of hires in the last two years to manage its growth, as technological advancements and new legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) have led to new investors entering the marketplace.
Foss & Company’s 40th anniversary is a testament to the company’s resilience, dedication to its clients, and its ability to adapt to an ever-changing landscape. The company’s journey so far is proof that hard work, commitment, and agility are essential for success in any industry. With a strong foundation built over the last four decades, Foss & Company is recognized as a thought leader in the industry, constantly pushing the boundaries of innovation and driving meaningful progress in the market. As we continue to expand our services, we remain committed to leading the way by providing our clients with unparalleled expertise and forward-thinking solutions. We are excited to see where the future takes us and look forward to continuing to make a positive impact in the industry for many years to come.
Listen to the full podcast and learn some of our secrets to long-term success in the marketplace with our Managing Director, John Bowman; Associate Vice President of Renewable Energy Investment Operations, Annie Amrhein; and CFO, Jack Mans, here.
To learn more about how you can make an impact by leveraging your tax liability, contact us today.
