Senator Ron Wyden introduced the “Opportunity Zone Reporting and Reform Act” this week, which would amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to require to increase reporting for qualified opportunity funds.
“Legislative momentum around reporting requirements continues to increase,” said Reid Thomas, Chief Revenue Officer and Managing Director of JTC Americas’ Specialty Financial Administration Business, which includes Opportunity Zone fund administration. “This is expected because ultimately in the long term, the Opportunity Zone initiative will be measured by whether it ends up doing the good it was intended to do.”
Also introduced this week by Representatives Ron Kind, Mike Kelly and Terri Sewell is another bill on the OZ program, the “Opportunity Zone Accountability and Transparency Act.” This proposed legislation would establish a reporting framework, disclosure requirements and a penalty for failure to file complete and correct returns. This is not a companion bill to Senator Wyden’s bill since it focuses only on establishing an increase reporting requirement for qualified opportunity zone funds.
“From the outset we built our solution with the type of tracking and reporting that Opportunity Zone Funds will need to be compliant with whatever legislative requirements are finally decided,” added Thomas, who spoke about the importance of technology and helping fund managers and investors track and report key OZ fund metrics at the Novogradac 2019 Opportunity Zones Conference in Chicago. “We have been thrilled to see the way industry has embraced these types of capabilities as best practices. This bodes well for the future success of Opportunity Zones.”
JTC Americas and OZ experts discussed the latest reporting bill requirements and more in the our Opportunity Zones webinar on Wed., Nov. 20. Watch the OZ webinar today!