The Law of Tax-Exempt Organizations, 2021 Cumulative Supplement. Bruce R. Hopkins

Although these opportunity zones are not necessarily discrete areas of charitable activity, “it is clear that philanthropies have a critical role in helping cities realize the full economic and social impact” of the zones.⁵⁷⁹ This commentator enumerated the ways charitable organizations can play important roles in advancing this program: gather everyone with a stake in improving a poor neighborhood, map out a region's assets, build markets, empower local residents, bolster institutions, encourage innovation, and share information. He noted that this opportunity zone tax incentive has the potential to channel private capital to communities that have “suffered from neglect by financial institutions and government” but added that this “potential will be realized only if philanthropies and other players help shape this new incentive so that it provides at least as much benefit to the public as it provides in private gain—if not more.”⁵⁸⁰

Notes

      1 ⁴⁴ IRS Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division, Disaster Relief: Providing Assistance Through Charitable Organizations (Pub. 3833 (rev. 2014)).

      2 ⁴⁵ In a summary of the federal tax law concerning international grantmaking by charitable organizations, the IRS suggested that, to be an eligible recipient of financial assistance in the disaster relief context, an individual must be “needy”; the word distressed was not used (Chief Couns. Adv. Mem. 200504031).

      3 ⁴⁶ See § 7.11.

      4 ⁴⁷ See § 7.7.

      5 ⁴⁸ See § 12.3.

      6 ⁴⁹ See § 11.8.

      7 ⁵⁰ See § 11.8(b), text accompanied by note 79.

      8 ^50.1 Notice 2006‐109, 2006‐51 I.R.B. 1121.

      9 ^50.2 The selection committee is considered independent if a majority of its members consists of individuals who are not in a position to exercise substantial influence over the employer's affairs.

      10 ^50.3 IRC § 139.

      11 ^50.4 The publication states that employer‐sponsored private foundations can only make payments to employees or their family members affected by qualified disasters, not in nonqualified disasters or in emergency hardship situations.

      12 ^50.5 See § 5.8(d).

      13 ^50.6 These payments are not taxable compensation to the employees (IRC § 139(a)).

      14 ^50.7 Priv. Ltr. Rul. 200634016.

      15 ^50.8 Priv. Ltr. Rul. 200839034

      16 ^50.9 Priv. Ltr. Rul. 200926033.

      17 ^116.1 IRC § 170(b)(1)(A)(iii).

      18 ^321.1 Priv. Ltr. Rul. 201906010.

      19 ^131.2 Priv. Ltr. Rul. 201843016.

      20 ^131.3 Priv. Ltr. Rul. 201327014.

      21 ^321.4 See § 24.5(q).

      22 ^321.5 See § 14.1(g).

      23 ^497.1 See § 7.14(a).

      24 ^497.2 Priv. Ltr. Rul. 202001108.

      25 ^497.3 See § 7.14(b).

      26 ^527.1 That is, tax exemption by reason of IRC § 501(a) as an entity described in IRC § 501(c)(3).

      27 ^527.2 See § 7.6(b)(viii), note 152.

      28 ^527.3 See § 20.5(c)(i). Consequently, a dual‐status governmental entity may wish to relinquish its IRC § 501(c)(3) status (see § 26.16, text accompanied by notes 275–279).

      29 ⁵⁷² IRC §§ 1400Z‐1, 1400Z‐2, added by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, Pub. L. No. 115‐97, 115th Cong., 1st. Sess. (2017), § 13823. These zones and funds are not necessarily inherently charitable in nature but involve nonprofit organizations and involve efforts that overlap with the concept of charity in economic development (see § 7.16(e)).

      30 ⁵⁷³ IRC § 1400Z‐1(a). The term low‐income community is defined in IRC § 45D(e).

      31 ⁵⁷⁴ IRC § 1400Z‐1(b).

      32 ⁵⁷⁵ IRC § 1400Z‐2(a).

      33 ⁵⁷⁶ IRC § 1400Z‐2(b), (c).

      34 ⁵⁷⁷ IRC § 1400Z‐2(d)(1).

      35 ⁵⁷⁸ IRC § 1400Z‐2(d)(2). Final regulations were issued on December 19, 2020, providing guidance as to gains that may be deferred as a result of an investment in a qualified opportunity fund (T.D. 9889). This body of law addresses the time by which corresponding amounts must be invested in these funds and the manner in which investors may elect to defer specified gains, and includes rules for valuation of funds' assets and guidance on qualified opportunity zone businesses.

      36 ⁵⁷⁹ Katz, “How Philanthropy Can Help Opportunity Zones Ensure Widespread Economic Renewal,” 31 Chron. of Phil. (Issue 8) 34 (June 2019).

      37 ⁵⁸⁰ Id. at 35.