Thanks to the urging of Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), the IRS issued revised guidance in Notice 2020-39 and provided some additional flexibility for Opportunity Zone investors and Qualified Opportunity Zone Funds.
The key take aways are as follows:
1. EXTENSION OF 180-DAY INVESTMENT PERIOD: Under the OZ regulations, an individual who realizes a gain, is required to invest that gain into a QOF within 180-days of realizing the gain (or such other date as outlined in the regulations). The new relief provides for the 180-day investment period to be automatically extended until December 31st, 2020 if it would have originally expired after April 1st, 2020 and before December 31st, 2020. Example: If any individual realized a gain on 12/15/2019, their investment period would have expired in May, 2020. That date is now automatically extended to December 31st, 2020.
2. EXTENSION OF 90% TEST FOR QOF: Under the OZ regulations, a QOF in required to invested 90% of its assets into qualifying opportunity zone property within 6 months and at the end of the taxable year (i.e., December 31st for a calendar year QOF). If the 90% test is not met, then the QOF is subject to penalties on a portion of the funds in the QOF. The new relief provides that if either the first 6 month testing date or the final year end testing date occurred between April 1st, 2020 and December 31st, 2020, then the failure to satisfy the 90% test is deemed to be due to reasonable cause and, as such, no penalties will be levied.
3. EXTENSION OF 30 MONTH SUBSTANTIAL IMPROVEMENT TEST: Under the final OZ regulations, one of the way tangible property qualifies as qualified opportunity zone business property is to meet the “substantially improved” test within 30 months of acquisition. The new relief provides for a tolling of the 30-month period beginning April 1st, 2020 and ending December 31st, 2020. In other words, properties that are acquired during or that have previously been acquired within an opportunity zone after 1-1-18 and which are under construction will be provided with an additional 9 months to satisfy the substantial improvement test.
The Notice also discusses the 12 month reinvestment requirement upon a sale and the up to 24 months of additional time under a “working capital plan” for properties located within federal declared disaster areas (note, all 50 states and Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands and Guam have been declared federal disaster areas in connection with COVID-19).
If you have any questions or thoughts, please do not hesitate to reach out via email or text to my cell. Best regards and be well.
A copy of the IRS Notice can be found here – IRS Notice 20-39
Over and out from the Land of OZ. -Brad