On Tuesday, July 9, the IRS hosted a public hearing on the second tranche of proposed regulations on Investing in Qualified Opportunity Funds [REG-120186-18]. The hearing took place at the IRS New Carrollton Federal Building just outside of Washington DC.

Recap of the hearing

Below is the full audio recording of the hearing. If you prefer, we also have a recap of the July 9 IRS hearing in both text and audio (podcast) formats.

Full audio recording

Timestamps for full audio recording

• 0:00:00 — Introduction
• 0:01:22 — Opening remarks: Julie Hanlon Bolton, IRS
• 0:03:52 — Opening remarks: Michael Novey, Treasury
• 0:07:42 — Speaker #1: William Cunningham, Creative Investment Research
• 0:17:01 — Speaker #2: Mary Scott Hardwick, Opportunity Finance Network
• 0:25:50 — Speaker #3: Kevin Matz, American College of Trust and Estate Counsel
• 0:44:29 — Speaker #4: James Rose, Rose Development LLC
• 0:56:13 — Speaker #5: Fran Seegull, U.S. Impact Investing Alliance
• 1:18:32 — Speaker #6: Steve Glickman, Develop LLC
• 1:36:57 — Speaker #7: Dan Cullen & Darryl Steinhause, Institute for Portfolio Alternatives
• 1:59:40 — Lunch Break
• 2:00:10 — Speaker #8: Argyrios Saccopoulos, State Bar of Texas Tax Section
• 2:17:13 — Speaker #9: Brent Carney, Maraziti Falcon LLP
• 2:28:06 — Speaker #10: Jill Homan, Javelin 19 Investments LLC
• 2:39:36 — Speaker #11: Regina Staudacher, Howard & Howard
• 2:59:18 — Speaker #12: Maurice Daniel (replacing Moses Boyd), Economic Inclusion Task Force
• 3:09:07 — Speaker #13: Sarah Brundage, Enterprise Community Partners
• 3:18:57 — Speaker #14: John Sciarretti, Novogradac Opportunity Zones Working Group
• 3:33:16 — Afternoon Break
• 3:34:15 — Speaker #15: Joseph Darby & Christina Rice, Boston University School of Law
• 3:52:08 — Speaker #16: John Lettieri, EIG Opportunity Zones Coalition
• 4:02:00 — Speaker #17: Mark Troppe (replacing Stefan Pryor), State Economic Development Executives
• 4:13:13 — Speaker #18: Clayton Wyatt, Alliant Asset Management Co LLC
• 4:22:25 — Speaker #19: Julia Gordon, National Community Stabilization Trust
• 4:36:15 — Conclusion of formal hearing, floor opened to the public
• 4:36:45 — Shay Hawkins, Opportunity Funds Association
• 4:40:16 — Eddie Loren, Strategic Realty Holdings
• 4:43:19 — Ashley Harrington, United Negro College Fund
• 4:47:32 — Adam Wallwork, Deloitte Tax
• 4:53:52 — Conclusion

Background

The IRS hearing on Qualified Opportunity Funds featured oral testimony regarding the second tranche of proposed guidance on Opportunity Zone investing, first issued on April 17. The commenting period closed on July 1. Thus far, 127 comments have been posted to Regulations.gov.

Noteworthy commenters include several stakeholders who have previously appeared on the Opportunity Zones Podcast, including John Lettieri of the Economic Innovation Group (podcast episode #30), Tony Chereso of the Institute for Portfolio Alternatives (podcast episode #29), Steve Schneider of the American Bar Association (podcast episode #26), Jill Homan of Javelin 19 (podcast episode #20), and Gerry Reihsen of Coasis Coalition (podcast episode #8).

Other noteworthy commenters include Steve Glickman of Develop Advisors, the U.S. Impact Investing Alliance, Enterprise Community Partners, Baker McKenzie, Novogradac, Harvard Law, the New York City Council, the County of Los Angeles, the State of Alaska, the State of Colorado, and the U.S. Conference of Mayors.