Who spoke at last week’s public hearing on the Opportunity Zones program? What did they say? And which topics received the most attention?

There were representatives from a wide variety of stakeholders that testified at the hearing — local economic development groups, working groups from different accounting and legal firms, policymakers, nonprofit advocacy groups, economic research firms, legal bar associations, private investment firms, consulting firms, and one representative from a Native American community.

Click the play button below to listen to the complete recap.

Episode Highlights

• An overview of the legislative and regulatory process, and a big picture overview of where we are at in the process.
• Next steps: when we can expect the next tranche of proposed regulations; and when we can expect the final regulations.
• Discussion of some of the most popular topics of discussion at the hearing — eligibility requirements for business investments, 70% and 90% asset test requirements, requests for community impact reporting/data to measure program effectiveness, gentrification risks, fund asset sales, and exit strategies.
• A full rundown of every speaker’s testimony.

Featured on This Episode

• Text recap of the hearing, complete with PDF downloads of each speaker’s comment letter
• Federal Register: Investing in Qualified Opportunity Funds (REG-115420-18)
• Live Tweets of the hearing: #OpportunityZonesIRSHearing — Michael Novogradac (@Novogradac), Rachel Reilly (@Rachel__Reilly), Gbenga Ajilore (@gbenga_ajilore), and Jill Homan (@jillhoman)

About the Opportunity Zones Podcast

Hosted by OpportunityDb.com founder Jimmy Atkinson, the Opportunity Zones Podcast features guest interviews from fund managers, advisors, policymakers, tax professionals, and other foremost experts in opportunity zones.

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