Treasury Issues Proposed Regulations On Opportunity Zones

I. Introduction

On October 19, 2018, the Internal Revenue Service (the "IRS") and the Treasury Department issued proposed regulations relating to the new Opportunity Zone program.¹ The Opportunity Zone program is intended to encourage investments in economically distressed qualified opportunity zones ("QOZs") by allowing taxpayers to defer and, in some cases, reduce or eliminate tax on capital gains if they reinvest their gains within 180 days in qualified opportunity funds ("QOFs"), which, in turn, generally are required to invest at least 90% of their assets in (1) certain business property located in a QOZ ("QOZ Business Property") and/or (2) equity in certain entities that hold QOZ Business Property ("QOZ Subsidiaries" and, together with QOZ Business Property, "QOZ Property").