Enacted as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, this program encourages investment into distressed and low-income communities, known as qualified opportunity zones (QOZ). It allows investors to generally defer tax on prior capital gains for a limited period of time, provided that such gain is reinvested in a Qualified Opportunity Fund (QOF).

GHJ’s Real Estate Team offers the following services to assist clients interested in QOF:

• Compliance and Consulting Experience in QOF Setups
• Ongoing Tax QOZ Regulatory Compliance
• Tax Compliance Filing Requirements

A real estate investment trust (REIT) is an extremely complex tax vehicle that, if properly structured and executed, could help middle-market real estate investment funds and asset managers bring tremendous value to investors and stakeholders for whom these types of vehicles would normally be denied access.

REITs require substantial regulatory compliance for setup and ongoing maintenance, which may seem overly burdensome for middle-market real estate companies. GHJ’s real estate team has expertise in REIT transactional matters and is uniquely positioned to serve the middle-market segment. Our experience includes:

• Formation and structuring
• Privately held REITs
• REIT qualifications and transactions
• Tax compliance and filing requirements

Tax planning and strategies have always been key components in driving a successful real estate enterprise, and now, a comprehensive approach is becoming more and more important in the world of real estate. In today’s fast-paced and ever-changing micro and macroeconomic environments, it is crucial to integrate and approach tax planning with the mindset of not only how it affects the cash flow position of the business today but years down the road.

Our specialized GHJ Real Estate Team has deep expertise in key real estate tax planning strategies, such as:

• Implementation of cost segregation studies to maximize depreciation deductions together with all the taxpayer’s other tax attributes and strategies
• Section 1031 exchanges including complex structuring and non-traditional exchanges
• Specialized knowledge in tenant-in-common (TIC) and Delaware Statutory Trusts (DST) transactions involving 1031 exchanges

All these tax strategies require deep thought and planning to ensure the optimal result – not just for tax, but for the business enterprise as a whole. The GHJ Real Estate Team can help bring tax planning strategies together in a way that management can use to make better business decisions, such as:

• Comprehensive modeling in the event of potential sales or acquisition of assets – considering the tax impacts from both buy and sell sides
• Debt and financing analysis to ensure maximum interest deduction under the restrictive business interest expense tax limitation rules
• Full cash-flow projection including scenario-based modeling with different tax strategies
• Internal rate of return (IRR) and net present value (NPV) calculations to quantify the tax benefits under the time value of money concepts