Clarity ‘Opportunity Zone’ Investors Seek May Be in New IRS Rules

Corporations, partnerships, and non-real estate businesses may have a better sense of how to apply a 2017 tax overhaul incentive for impoverished—and not-so-impoverished—areas in a forthcoming set of IRS regulations.

Such guidelines could pave the way for investment in operating businesses located in the more than 8,700 tracts designated for tax deferrals on capital gains funneled into those areas. The program is largely viewed as favoring real estate.

The proposed rules, according to a Treasury Department official, also may briefly address information reporting requirements for “opportunity funds” that invest in the ...