OPPORTUNITY ZONES

Since 1986, when Congress aggressively shut down many conventional tax shelters and tax "loopholes", tax planning has been largely a "defensive" exercise, trying to avoid inadvertent, catastrophic mistakes, rather than seeking smart tax-advantaged opportunities. This course will try and put the "offense" back into tax planning. This course will examine three Code sections that offer sophisticated tax-planning opportunities that can allow taxpayers to dramatically reduce their tax burdens: 1) use of Opportunity Zones (Code Section 1400 Z--2) to defer gain from existing investments and avoid gain entirely from OZ investments; 2) Code Section 1031, Like Kind Exchanges, for deferring gain on the sale of real estate indefinitely by investing in other real estate; and 3) Code Section 1202 and 1045, that allow investments in qualified small business stock (QSBS) to avoid up to $10 million of gain (or, if greater, ten times the tax basis invested), and also to rollover and defer gain indefinitely under Code Section 1045.