Taxpayers who recognized a capital gain in 2020 may have until March 31, 2021 to invest in a Qualified Opportunity Zone Fund (“QOF”), according to a new notice issued by the IRS last week.
On January 20, 2021, the IRS issued Notice 2021-10, which provided additional relief to taxpayers by postponing certain due dates to March 31, 2021.
Under Section 1400Z-2 of the Code, taxpayers normally have 180 days to invest capital gains in a QOF to be eligible for Opportunity Zone tax treatment.
One of the deadlines postponed by a previous relief notice was a taxpayer’s 180-day deadline for investing capital gain eligible dollars into a QOF. For any 180-day period that ended on or after April 1, 2020 and before July 15, 2020, the deadline was initially extended to July 15, 2020. Thereafter, under IRS Notice 2020-39 further relief for QOFs was granted to allow any 180-day period that ended on or after April 1, 2020 and before December 31, 2020, to be extended to December 31, 2020.
With their latest Notice, given the COVID-19 pandemic, the IRS again extended various deadlines again for QOFs and their investors to March 31, 2021.
In practical terms for an individual taxpayer, for any gain recognized on or after April 1, 2020 and before March 31, 2021, effectively, there is no 180-day period, rather, a March 31, 2021 deadline applies to invest their gain in a QOF. As such, the new IRS notice, gives some investors with 2020 capital gains (i.e., those with gains from April 1, 2020 to October 2, 2020) more time than originally anticipated for investment in OZs. For any gain recognized on or after October 2, 2020, the standard 180-day period will once again apply.
Other relief provided in the new notice applies to Qualified Opportunity Fund compliance deadlines, including extensions for complying with the 90% investment standard, the 30-month substantial improvement period, the 31 month working capital safe harbor, and the 12-month reinvestment period.
Duane Morris has an active Tax Credits and Opportunity Zone Team to help organizations and individuals plan, respond to, and invest in Opportunity Zones and low income areas throughout the USA, including the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico using tax credit equity and standard equity. We have closed over 61 OZ deals since their inception and are actively working on over 38 OZ projects for owner/developers, investors and business owners. We would be happy to discussion your proposed project with you. Contact your Duane Morris attorney for more information. Prior Alerts on the topic are available on the team’s webpage.
If you have any questions about this post, please contact Brad A. Molotsky, Art Momjian, Scott Gluck, Lee Potter, Keli Isaacson Whitlock, Anastasios Kastrinakis, or the attorney in the firm with whom you are regularly in contact.
Take care and stay safe.