IRS Opens Doors for Foreign Investors in Opportunity Zones

The IRS proposed allowing foreign investors with gains from real estate and certain other business activities in the United States to avoid tax withholding when putting those profits into a tax-advantaged opportunity fund.

Foreign individuals are subject to withholding on gains “effectively connected” to a U.S. business and, under a 1980 law (Public Law 96-499), gains from U.S. real estate. But proposed rules (REG-121095-19) released Monday would allow foreign investors who want to put their gains into an opportunity fund to bypass normal withholding on profits from their sales of U.S. real estate or “effectively connected” ...