According to the Wall Street Journal, from developers to nonprofits, everyone is grabbing for the tax breaks offered for investments in low-income neighborhoods, or “opportunity zones.”
These zones were created as part of the tax overhaul and allowed governors to designate up to 25% of their state’s low-income Census tracts as tax-favored opportunity zones where investors can defer taxes by taking capital gains from other investments and reinvesting them in these areas.
“This is the biggest initiative of this type by the federal government with the least debate, the least staff support, the least research and still the least clarity,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti told WSJ.
“It hasn’t really been fleshed out and that’s exciting for me,” he added.
The hope is to generate economic energy in these areas, and with as little oversight as there is, investors are excitedly gearing up to deploy capital in opportunity zones.
