OZ MAGAZINE 2022 Top 25 Influencers issue 2.2 | Page 45

TOP 25 POLICY INFLUENCERS
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DANIEL KOWALSKI

FORMER COUNSELOR , U . S . DEPARTMENT OF TREASURY

Dan Kowalski is the owner of Wizard of OZ , a bespoke consultancy focused on helping people use the Opportunity Zone incentive . He advises Belpointe OZ , Eazy Do It , Inc ., and the Redivider Blockchain OZ Fund . Previously , Kowalski was Counselor to the Secretary at the U . S . Department of the Treasury from 2017 until January of 2021 . He was the Treasury official responsible for policy development of the regulations , forms , and instructions required to implement Opportunity Zones . Prior to Treasury , Kowalski worked for Congress for two decades . He received his MPP from Harvard ’ s Kennedy School , and BA from St . John ’ s College , Annapolis .

WHAT DO YOU THINK SHOULD BE CHANGED WITH THE OZ LEGISLATION TO FURTHER IMPROVE THE INDUSTRY ?
Allow every U . S . taxpayer to invest in Opportunity Zones to turbocharge investments and inspire OZ residents to start businesses in their communities . Do this by allowing non-capital gains ( ordinary ) income invested in Qualified Opportunity Funds to receive deferred recognition and elimination of capital gains on appreciation just like investments of capital gains income . If a limiting principle is necessary , cap a taxpayer ’ s total QOF holdings from ordinary income at $ 5 million . Accompany democratization of OZ investment with extensions of the recently expired 10 % step up in basis for QOF investments held for five years and the 2026 sunset .

JOHN LETTIERI

PRESIDENT AND CEO , ECONOMIC INNOVATION GROUP

John Lettieri is President and CEO of the Economic Innovation Group ( EIG ), a nonprofit public policy organization dedicated to forging a more dynamic U . S . economy for all Americans . Under his leadership , EIG has become a nationally recognized force in policy debates ranging from regional inequality and worker mobility to entrepreneurship and immigration reform . EIG worked closely with lawmakers to design and champion the bipartisan Investing in Opportunity Act , which established Opportunity Zones as part of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act .

WHAT DO YOU THINK SHOULD BE CHANGED WITH THE OZ LEGISLATION TO FURTHER IMPROVE THE INDUSTRY ?
The Economic Innovation Group has called on lawmakers to pursue a number of common sense ways to make Opportunity Zones a more effective tool for supporting investment in low-income areas , including : enacting comprehensive reporting requirements to track OZ investments and the economic conditions in designated communities over time ; sunsetting the designation of higherincome tracts ; providing new federal resources to support local implementation efforts ; and enacting a one-time extension of the deadline for new OZ investments .
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