Opportunity Zones Made Permanent: 2026 Tax Benefits and New Investment Rules

Ashley Tison (00:00)
But if that wasn’t enough, I’ve got a whole thing of Ginsu knives as well, right? So but on the backside of your new investment after a 10-year hold.

You’re able to exit that with a step up in basis to fair market value, which eliminates capital gains and it also eliminates depreciation recapture. And so it’s really powerful because anybody with any kind of capital gain, long-term, short term, sale of real estate, sale of business, gold, appreciated stock, whatever, you can defer the taxes on that. And so we are we’re regularly doing that for people that are just like, hey, listen, I just want to start with a deferral.

Issa Hanna (02:08)
Welcome back to another episode of the Real Estate Pros show. I’m your host, Issa Hanna and today I have Ashley Tison here to teach us what opportunity zones are. Ashley, welcome to the show.

Ashley Tison (02:18)
It’s I appreciate you having me on. It’s an honor and a privilege.

Issa Hanna (02:21)
It’s an honor to host you. You’re in a facet of of advisory and and tax tax advisory and and strategy that a lot of people don’t know about. So for people at home, what are opportunity zones?

Ashley Tison (02:34)
So it’s a tax incentive that was created by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017. And it was specifically designed in order to encourage people to go into historically underinvested areas. So the legislator gave every governor the ability to designate up to 25% of their low-income census tracts as opportunity zones. And if you have a capital gain, so that’s the one unfortunate part about it, is that you actually have to have a capital gain in order to participate, but you take that capital gain.

And you put it into a qualified opportunity fund within a certain period of time. And then you take that capital gain from your qualified opportunity fund and then you invest it either into a real estate or into an operating business. And the first thing that happens is you get to defer taxes on your original capital gain. Under 2.0 that’s gonna be a five year rolling deferral. When you go to pay those taxes, it’s gonna be 10% of what your tax liability would have been.

And if you’re in rural qualified opportunity zones, 90% of your investments are in rural zones, then you get a 30% reduction when you go to pay the taxes five years out. So just the deferral and the reduction are serious, serious incentives.

But if that wasn’t enough, I’ve got a whole thing of Ginsu knives as well, right? So but on the backside of your new investment after a 10-year hold.

You’re able to exit that with a step up in basis to fair market value, which eliminates capital gains and it also eliminates depreciation recapture. And so it’s really powerful because anybody with any kind of capital gain, long-term, short term, sale of real estate, sale of business, gold, appreciated stock, whatever, you can defer the taxes on that. And so we are we’re regularly doing that for people that are just like, hey, listen, I just want to start with a deferral.

We set them up their own QOF.

Qualified opportunity fund, because you don’t have to be a fund manager in order to do this. We set up, we set up almost 2,000 of them, and people can do their own fund, get the deferral, and it gives them time to be able to look at different deals. And so it’s much longer period of time before you actually have to invest than like 1031 or other types of tax incentive programs. And so it’s really powerful just for the deferral element. And then once people really start looking at it and they’re like, wait a second.

You mean to tell me these deals that I’m doing, if I just did in an opportunity zone, that I could save twenty four percent on that the taxes on that deal? I said yes, right. And it it ends up being about a three percent bump on IRR, which is really significant in the real estate world.

Issa Hanna (05:53)
Definitely. When you’re when you’re flipping houses, guys, sometimes those margins are slim. And that’s just one one example, like like Ashley said, it could be you sold some gold stock and and and you got a capital gain from that. But he can save twenty four percent is a lot of money, you guys. Unbelievable. And it’s something that people didn’t know about because it’s a new legislation in twenty seventeen that was passed. And then you said recent laws now made it permanent. So

There’s kinda like a a huge buzz about right now.

Ashley Tison (06:23)
Yeah. So in the One Big Beautiful Bill, which was passed last July fourth in twenty twenty five, they made Opportunity Zones permanent and then they gave us this five year rolling deferral if you put your money in. And now there’s a a new designation of zones every 10 years as well. So we’re in that process right now of designating new opportunity zones. And so there’s this window of time between now and the end of the year where you can actually go into either 1.0 zones or 2.0 zones.

And so you kind of have the best of both worlds. So it’s a great time that we’re talking and we’re educating people about this because if you ever thought that you might want to get into it or you heard about it or whatever, now’s the time to take action, to learn more about it, see if it might fit in with what your ultimate investment strategy is. Because once again, it’s extremely powerful getting that 3% bump on IRR because you’re not paying Uncle Sam on the backside of your deal.

Issa Hanna (07:18)
One hundred percent. Unbelievable. A great opportunity. Opportunity zones are a great opportunity, as they say. And another thing that you said is an opportunity, but also kind of a threat for for you right now in in the market is finding your niche, right? Finding honing in, finding your lane and getting into it. So can you give me a little bit more about about that?

Ashley Tison (07:42)
Yeah, absolutely. So, the the the great thing about what’s happened within the industry is that there’s been this massive tsunami of interest. And there’s been this massive tsunami and this wave that’s kind of shot our company, OZ Pros, up. Whereas, I used to have to do all kinds of outbound advertising and phone call and all that kind of stuff. We’ve got people pouring into us. And that’s an awesome play. The challenge is that within that.

It creates all of these different things, right? That we could do. And I’m a serial entrepreneur and I love shiny balls. I love starting business. My Enneagram is that I’m a starter. And so I all the time want to be doing, hey man, we I just I just thought I had this idea. We need to go do that. And if you’re not careful, you’re gonna end up dying of indigestion. Too much stuff that you’ve put on your plate and not an ability to be able to execute on the the one or two good things that you’re good at.

So I’m in this group called C12 and they talk about this thing called your hedgehog concept. And the hedgehog is where your Venn diagram, it’s an overlap between what could you be best in the world at? What do you have an acumen for? And what do you really love to do? And so we’re trying to put every opportunity up against that. So you got your core value filter that you put on things. All right. But even inside of that, there can still be a lot of noise relative to.

An opportunity. And so we then put it through the hedgehog filter to really hone in on it and to hone in on what it is that I, that really is going to get me passionate about wanting to get up in the morning because I love doing what I do. And for us, that’s kind of in the hunting space. And we’re we’re in the process of rolling this out. If you’re a hunter and and or you, you’got a passion for, wide open spaces, we’ve got an ability to be able to help you do so.

Tax in a tax mitigated fashion. And we’re trying to scale that ourselves. I I won’t bore you with the business model about how we’re gonna do it, but if that resonates with you, you definitely need to reach out because number one, we need to talk hunting. And then number two, I need to show you how you can do and pursue your passion, but do so in a tax advantaged way.

Issa Hanna (10:28)
One hundred percent. And and somebody who has a passion for wide open spaces and hunting, always wanting to buy one of my own hunting properties and just thinking like, it’s might not be the right time. Like you like you said, Ashley, I gotta do this, I gotta do that before I do it. An opportunity zone creates an opportunity for you to get into it faster. So That’s right. I I love that.

Ashley Tison (10:50)
Something there’s something about when you’re gonna save taxes that that makes it so you’re like what I need to go ahead and do this so use that right like you should be doing it anyhow but use the tax incentive to really get your head around it and then to just make it sing

Issa Hanna (11:06)
Definitely. And I I want to shift gears right now and get a little bit of history. You said you’ve, you’re a serial entrepreneur. You’ve built other companies, sold other companies. So kind of give us your journey of how you got to OZ Pros.

Ashley Tison (11:20)
Yeah, it’s funny as I like to call myself an entrepreneur trapped in a lawyer’s body. So I went to law school. I played basketball coming up through college and did a little bit of professional in Germany. But their idea of a living and my idea of a living were two entirely different things. So I ended up going to law school and then I was like, All right, well, you come out of law school, you gotta go with a big firm. So I went to the big firm that sucked my soul for five years. And finally I was like, Man, I had enough.

I then went in-house doing commercial real estate, which I had a passion for, and decided that commercial real estate wasn’t risky enough. So I went to develop a golf course in the mountains of North Carolina that had residential real estate attached to it, and that was in April of 2007. So let me tell you how that story ended, right? It was like a Thelma & Louise moment, like going off the cliff. No tire tracks, no brakes, nothing, right? And so

When I was jobless and struggling to meet the mortgage payment and trying to figure out what I was gonna do, thank God I had a law license. So I went back to practicing law. I built up a shop doing mergers and acquisition work. We actually built a software to help Main Street America business owners sell their business with Wall Street level sophisticated documents. And I saw how much money that the the business owners were leaving on the table in the form of taxes. So I sold that.

Law firm in 2017 so that that way I could really focus my efforts on helping business owners save money on taxes and do succession planning to really think about like what was what was their purpose? What were they going towards instead of running from? Unfortunately, nobody wants to talk about it and they certainly don’t want to pay for that. And so I was at a CLE in 2018. They were talking about the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. This guy was like, hey, there’s this thing called opportunity zones.

I ran him down on the hallway afterward and I was like, hey man, that sounded like private equity. And 1031 got married. And he’s like, and they had this beautiful baby named Opportunity Zone. So I was like, dude, I’m in. We popped up a website. We bought a thousand dollars worth of keywords and we had 150 inbound leads, 75 million dollars worth of capital looking for deals. And I was like, heck yeah, we’re gonna ride this tsunami because we just happened to, we happen to be in the right place at the right time.

And then act on kind of, what I think was a divinely inspired moment there. And I was like, okay, Lord, I’m gonna I’m gonna follow. I’m gonna at least test the waters here. And man, it was like kaboom. And so it exploded and it exploded into us repurposing that software system to become kind of the LegalZoom for opportunity zones for main street level investors that wanted to take advantage of this really powerful tax incentive. And so we just started changing out.

Captive qualified opportunity funds. And along the way we realized that they really need help to actually execute it because there’s nuances to the program. And so through that, I became an expert in the industry. And it’s been a wild ride.

Issa Hanna (14:21)
Definitely. And now you’re one of the most knowledgeable people in the country about this certain topic. And another thing that is a great asset in the professional world to have is the charisma that you have, the the energy that you bring, right? A lot of professionals they don’t bring that kind of energy. And a lot a lot of people that watch my show

Ashley Tison (14:41)
X World.

Issa Hanna (14:42)
Exactly. They’re numbers people. I we we can’t hate on the tax people, but you gotta you gotta talk a little more. But for younger viewers that are just getting into the professional world, can you kind of explain why that’s important?

Ashley Tison (15:35)
Well, you got to bring energy to everything that you do because it just makes it so that people that they have a good time. And life’s too short to do something that you hate, right? And it goes back to that hedgehog concept. I’ve been struggling because I’m like, well man, this thing really makes a lot of money, but we hate doing it. And so I’m like, what? We just need to sell that part of our practice. I need to divest that. And then I need to get paid for sourcing it because that’s what I’m really good at.

I’m really good at resonating with people, connecting with them because they like that energy. And then being able to walk them through the specifics. But man, I am not the guy to be the follow-on, like like delve into the weeds and do all your paperwork and dot the I’s cross the T’s. Now that’s extremely important inside of Opportunity Zones, which is why I’ve built a team to do that. But it’s just it’s painful for me to have to jump into that.

Into like really get into the weeds. And so we’re evaluating like, okay, how what’s our best play for that? So if you’re a CPA out there and this resonates with you and you want a compliance practice for opportunity zones, call me.

Issa Hanna (16:44)
Call him. Call me. He will he’ll get you all the way together with it. Like I said, one of the most knowledgeable people in the country. And then now, if I look you up, Ashley, in five years, where am I going to see you at?

Ashley Tison (16:55)
That’s a great question. You’re gonna you’re gonna see me on top of a horse, right, with my cowboy hat on. And I’m going to be leading a a a very well, I think it’s probably gonna be a pretty I think there’ll be inner circles, right? There’ll be like concentric circles of high net worth families who want to have purpose and impact with their money. And that I’m gonna be doing so with really quality investments that they’re gonna be going into.

And I’m gonna be helping them communicate about what true wealth really means. And then, we’ll have a fund as part of what we do. We’ve got a fund right now that does opportunity zone deals. And so we will be coordinating that. And we’ll be coordinating probably captive funds for those same families. But that’s what I’m really passionate about is to to do that. And I’m gonna be doing that in the hunting lodges that we invest into, right? So

It’s all this kind of symbiotic, feed upon feed, right? That’s it’s a it’s a self sustaining cycle and I’m pretty stoked about that. I’ve had this vision for a long time and it’s time.

Issa Hanna (18:02)
Definitely. And and you are a visionary, just by talking to you. Even the thing where you said, I’m not gonna cross the I’s and dot the T’s, I got my people to do that. You’ve got other things on your mind, you you you’ve got growth, you’ve got scaling, you’ve got just, strategy for all your clients on your mind. So definitely a lot of the great entrepreneurs, a lot of the great professionals in our space, in the world.

Think the way you do. They’re visionaries and and they know that and they delegate the rest of it to the other people. So right? Yeah, definitely.

Ashley Tison (18:35)
It’s like I got all these ideas popping around. So I just got to figure out and I got to get that team around me that can harness those ideas and just turn me loose like on the stuff that’s just that. And then have somebody else filter through the ideas and figure out which ones they’re gonna execute and that kind of thing. But man, turn me loose with a problem and where I just have a whiteboard and all I got to do is just come up with ideas about how to solve it. That is my sweet spot.

Issa Hanna (19:00)
Hundred percent, a hundred percent. And and all the great entrepreneurs are exactly that. They’re the visionaries that that just let loose, just like you said. I I wanna kinda pick your brain now and get your advice for our younger, newer professionals in the world, about business relationships. So as we talked about charisma, we talked about energy, knowledge. You need to bring all that to establish business relationships. But

To start establishing these relationships, to start growing your network, a lot of people are lost when they first start out. So can you give them some advice on where to start?

Ashley Tison (19:33)
I mean, what’s funny is that you literally, you every networking group that’s out there is going to be a great resource. Now, the Chamber of Commerce, maybe that may not be your exact client base, but get into the things that in the groups that have meaning to you. If you’re if you’re faith driven, get involved in your church. It’s funny, is it I had a lawyer give me this advice and he was specifically talking about law. He’s like, join the choir.

Because the people in the choir, all the they ha they’re the ones with all the problems.

Issa Hanna (20:03)
It’s so

Ashley Tison (20:05)
Hey, it’s good advice though, right? Because as you can niche down into those groups, you start building the relationships where they get to know what you do and then they want to help you to connect with other people. My former law partner started this men’s workout group called F3. And any man that’s out there, if you are above 18, actually even younger than 18, go to f3nation.com. There’s like 10,000 workouts across the world now.

And it’s specifically designed in order to create because it’s fitness, fellowship, and faith. And so it’s literally designed for you to go out, get a workout in, and to connect with other dudes. So there’s groups like that that are out there all over the place that you can join, and that those become the foundation for you to then be able to build business relationships out of it. But it starts with a relationship, right? So get good at building relationships, get good at being curious.

And trying to learn, right? So seek first to understand and then be understood. And you will have no problem with your networking.

Issa Hanna (21:07)
Great advice. F3 Nation. Very intriguing. I’m definitely check check them out. And for people at home, I encourage you guys to check them out too. Mind, body, and spirit, needs to be healthy for you to help other people. So great advice. Great advice, Ashley. And now we plugged F3. You’re such a good guy. You plugged your friend. I’m gonna give you the I’m gonna give you the

Ashley Tison (21:30)
So there’s nothing I mean, there’s nothing in it for me, nothing in it for him. It’s completely free, right? But it’s doing good work. So

Issa Hanna (21:36)
Nice. So now I want you to plug yourself. How can people get a hold of you?

Ashley Tison (21:40)
Yeah, so ozpros.com and if you go to ozpros.com/podcast, we’ve got special offers for your listeners. If if you want to get in touch with us, we’ve got a 15-minute call that you can set. So you could literally click through on that webpage. And we got a free 15-minute call for any of your listeners. We’ve got a discount for joining our weekly mastermind that we have where you can, I think it’s the fastest way to a PhD in opportunity zones. It’s called Ascent. And then if you’re ready to roll.

I mean, we set up literally that’s what we do is we set up opportunity zone entities all the time. We also regularly have free webinars where people can come in and then they can ask questions. So go to ozpros.com. If you want to get, you want to hear or watch more, learn more about opportunity zones, you go to youtube.com/ozpros. And we got a bunch of videos about just opportunity zones as a whole.

I’ve got one that’s the down and dirty and I literally go through all things opportunity zone in 20 minutes. And it’s it liter if that, you can do opportunity zones.

Issa Hanna (22:43)
Definitely. And I know our viewers that that watch this show, you you guys are high dollar investors, our own members here at Investor Fuel. You guys are our high dollar investors, flippers. If you haven’t heard about opportunity zones, make sure to check out ozpros.com. Like I said, Ashley’s one of the most knowledgeable people in the country. So he can definitely give you some good education. It looks like you can get a great education just by visiting the website. So

Make sure to check them out, you guys. Ashley, I’d like to thank you so much for coming on the show. All out of time for today, but I do want to invite you back on the show at a later date because I really enjoyed our conversation and I know that we’re not done talking about opportunity zones. So if if you will accept my invitation. I’d love. Thank you. Enjoyed our conversation, definitely.

Ashley Tison (23:33)
Me too. Thank you.

Issa Hanna (23:34)
Thank you. And to our viewers at home, if you guys enjoyed my conversation and want to see more just like this, make sure to hit like and subscribe. I talk to people every day that can bring us different knowledge on every aspect of the real estate industry. Until next time. The Real Estate Pros are out.