With contributions by Auyon Rahman of Summit Consulting In the third post of this series, we take a deeper look at the bipartisan bill that would extend the tax incentive, add reporting requirements, and more. On April 7, 2022, U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Tim Scott (R-SC), along with U.S. Representatives Ron Kind (D-WI) and Mike Kelly (R-PA), introduced new, critically important Opportunity Zone (OZ) legislation that, among various features, provides a series of improvements to expand reporting requirements not included in the original 2017 legislation. This will allow transpare ..read more

With contributions by Auyon Rahman of Summit Consulting In the fourth and final post of this series, we cover the work of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, IRS, Senate, and House of Representatives in developing processes and legislation to track and regulate Opportunity Zone businesses and investors. Today, the advantages of Opportunity Zones (OZs) are well known to capital gains investors and communities that benefit from their investment. OZs were designed to encourage the creation of jobs and economic growth in low-income communities. They serve as powerful tax i ..read more

With contributions by Auyon Rahman of Summit Consulting This is the first in a series of four posts in collaboration with CapZone Impact Investments discussing Opportunity Zone (OZ) updates in 2022. As the program develops, so does scrutiny on OZ investors. In this post, we review the watchdog report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, which zeros in on inaccurate or inconsistent filings by OZ taxpayers. As part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act enacted in 2017, geographical areas for capital investment were identified throughout the U.S., which allowed investors to rece ..read more

With contributions by Auyon Rahman of Summit Consulting In our first post of this series, we reviewed the watchdog report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. In this post, we look at the eight recommendations made by the Inspector General, the response from IRS management, and the implications for Qualified Opportunity Fund administration. Qualified Opportunity Zones have proven exceptionally popular as an investment vehicle since their inception in December 2017. The tax incentive has been so well received by investors that billions were invested even before final ..read more

With contributions by Auyon Rahman of Summit Consulting and Jonathan Ewert of CapZone Impact Investments Disclaimer: Summit does not provide any services directly to any Community Development Finance Institution but provides consulting and analytical support to the U.S. Department of the Treasury to measure the success of CDFI Fund programs, including the Bond Guarantee Program. In a recent article, the New York Times highlighted new research from the University of California, Berkeley examining the initial impact of Opportunity Zones (OZs) throughout the country. While a nascent analysis by t ..read more

With contributions by John Kramer Disclaimer: The information in this article is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice or be relied upon to make any investment decisions. Introduction The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal (BID), is historic not only for the $1.2 trillion size of the bill, but also for the 5-year length of the authorization. This makes the BID immune to partisan quarrels that could slow the movement of money into transportation infrastructure projects. The federal stage has been se ..read more

With contributions by Auyon Rahman and James Hargens of Summit Consulting This is the first in a series of three blog posts in collaboration with CapZone Impact Investments discussing Opportunity Zones. In this post, we’ll explain what they are, provide an overview of recent legislative and regulatory changes to the program, and look at how these changes might impact interest in Opportunity Zone investments. In the second post, we’ll discuss how the Opportunity Zone incentive aligns with the Biden administration’s Build Back Better Plan. And in the third and final post, we’ll take a look at op ..read more

With contributions by Jonathan Ewert of CapZone Impact Investments and James Hargens of Summit Consulting In our first post, we discussed proposed regulatory changes to the Opportunity Zone (OZ) tax incentive and how OZs continue to gain momentum with investors and political leaders. The introduction of OZs nearly four years ago had both investors and community stakeholders debating their potential impact, with uncertainty around investment timelines and concern over the displacement of existing residents. But as OZs continue to grow (investments in Qualified Opportunity Funds, or QOFs, reache ..read more

This is the second in a series on advancing racial equity through access to capital and impact measurement. The author thanks Catherine Dun Rappaport of BlueHub Capital and Caitlin Rosser of Calvert Impact Capital for their contributions to this article, as well as their time, expertise, and devotion to this work. In our first post on impact capital for advancing racial equity, we covered the impacts of structural racism on the racial wealth gap and how investors from across a spectrum of asset classes are approaching access to capital for historically underserved grou ..read more

This is the third post of a series discussing the role of the ESG and impact investing field in advancing racial equity by increasing access to capital and measuring impact. In the previous posts of this series, we discussed the racial wealth gap and the impact that historically low access to capital has had on communities of color. We also discussed what firms in the ESG and impact investing space are doing to advance racial equity. These strategies run the gamut from creating dedicated funds designed to reach Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) entrepreneurs, such as Reinvent ..read more