How much do you know about opportunity zones? Maybe you know the basics — that the opportunity zones program is an economic policy intended to revitalize some of the most economically distressed areas of the country, and that to encourage investment in such communities, huge tax benefits await investors. Capital gains deferral on the front
Most qualified opportunity zone funds are geared toward real estate. Because 90% of a fund’s assets must be held within OZ geographies, real estate investing is simpler than business venture investing. That said, the actual purpose of the legislation itself was to spark small business and entrepreneurship in oft-ignored areas of the country — not
Due to the preferential treatment created for Puerto Rico in US Code Section 1400Z-1(b)(3), nearly the entire island is an opportunity zone. Governor Ricardo Roselló has estimated that the opportunity zones initiative “has the potential to inject more than $600 million in new investments into the local economy.” Earlier this week, the governor sent a
Professional tax advisor Tony Nitti of WithumSmith+Brown’s National Tax Service Group has an excellent and thorough (and at times humorous!) Q&A-format article on Forbes this week. The article dives headfirst into many of the subtle nuances of the legislation, dealing with original gain deferral, the 180-day window, qualified opportunity funds, OZ property, and tax savings.
Earlier today, the U.S. Treasury Department released REG-115420-18, Investing in Qualified Opportunity Funds — a 74-page regulatory document that clarifies many ambiguities surrounding the new opportunity zones program created by Trump’s Tax Cuts & Jobs Act, but also raises additional questions. The regulations are still not finalized. There are a few more steps to go through
East Coast law firm Day Pitney recently wrote an article highlighting many of the biggest unanswered questions about Section 1400Z on qualified opportunity zone funds ahead of the release of official regulations from the IRS. For commentary on each of these questions, check out the original article at DayPitney.com. How does a business’s need for
John Pantekidis, CIO and general counsel for multi-family office TwinFocus, recently contributed an article to Forbes explaining why Qualified Opportunity Zone investments could be considered a “once-in-a-lifetime” program for high net worth individuals (HNWIs) and ultra high net worth (UHNW) families. Pantekidis makes several interesting points in his article about unknowns, including: In some cases,
Back in June, the Kresge Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation jointly announced a request for letters of inquiry from fund managers who had plans to establish opportunity funds. Of the 141 responses received, last month the foundations identified 20 potential fund managers that were eligible to receive grants and support. The foundations have committed up
Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin was interviewed by The Hill’s editor-in-chief Bob Cusack during a live event last week. The interview was wide-ranging, but briefly covered the new opportunity zones tax incentive, where Mnuchin expressed his optimism in the program. Mnuchin said: I think there’s going to be over $100 billion of private capital that
While the IRS works on opportunity zone guidance, Bob Ibanez, senior public policy manager at Novogradac & Company, has suggested in a recent article that the Treasury department use the lessons they have learned from the New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) program. There are several similarities between the opportunity zone benefit and the NMTC, including
OpportunityDb.com provides world-class tools, education, and analysis to help interested parties discover opportunities in the federal Opportunity Zones program.
