If you are an accountant I'm surprised at your comment regarding REITs.
Many (although admittedly not all) REITs have ROC as a high proportion of their distributions. So in a taxable account there is both tax deferral on the ROC and when the units are sold the ROC that you have received is taxed at the same rate as capital gains - better tax-wise than dividend income.
Yes, one has to track the ROC but one would think that this would not be too onerous for an accountant.