Up-Date on OZones: No Reporting Requirements To Ensure The Program Achieves Intended Goals

U.S. Treasury Moving to Implement Opportunity Zone Tax Breaks

February 25, 2019 By Benjamin Dietderich 

PLEASE NOTE THIS FIRST:

“The Opportunity Zone Program was passed through the TCJA without any reporting requirements to ensure that the program is achieving its intended goals—mainly, bringing investment to economically distressed communities, . . "

Economically Distressed: Nearly 35 million Americans live in the census tracts designated as Opportunity Zones, according to data from the 2011-2015 American Community Survey, the Treasury reports.
Opportunity Zones are an experiment he supports and hopes will succeed in economically developing depressed areas, says Stephen Moore, a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation and economic advisor to the Trump presidential campaign.
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There are already location-based tax incentive programs throughout the United States and at all government levels, often referred to as enterprise zones, says Scott Eastman, federal research manager at the Tax Foundation. Eastman is the coauthor of a recent Tax Foundation report, “What We Know and Don’t Know About Opportunity Zones.”

Unlike enterprise zone tax incentives, Opportunity Zone incentives do not require the employment of residents of the zone and instead focus solely on capital gains tax reductions as a way to increase investment in distressed communities, Eastman says.

The TCJA does not require the program to generate reports on the affected communities, though the Trump Administration has taken some steps by creating an Opportunity and Revitalization Council, says Eastman.

One of the council’s tasks is to determine what data, metrics, and methodology can be used to measure the effectiveness of Opportunity Zones.
Reference > click here
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Official Information from the City of Mesa:

Opportunity Zones | City of Mesa

https://www.selectmesa.com/business-environment/incentives.../opportunity-zones

As of April 9, 2018, all of Arizona's 168 submitted tracts became officially designated as Opportunity Zones. Mesa's designated Opportunity Zones are anchored by our four central business districts: Downtown Mesa, the Fiesta District, the Falcon District, and the Gateway Area.

City of Mesa announces approved Opportunity Zones - Mesa Now

www.mesanow.org/news/public/article/2109

May 31, 2018 - City of Mesa announces approved Opportunity Zones. The City of Mesa has 11 census tracts now approved as Opportunity Zones by the U.S. Department of Treasury. This federal program is meant to spur investment in low-income areas by providing tax benefits to investors who reinvest capital gains into Opportunity Zones.

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Related Internet Info
“Investing in Qualified Opportunity Funds,”
Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Treasury Department
Docket No. 2018-23382, Oct. 29, 2018:
https://www.heartland.org/publications-resources/publications/irs-draft-regulations-investing-in-qualified-opportunity-funds

Scott Eastman and Nicole Kaeding,
“Opportunity Zones: What We Know and What We Don’t,”
Fiscal Fact No. 630, Tax Foundation, January 2019:
https://www.heartland.org/publications-resources/publications/tax-foundation-what-we-know-and-dont-know-about-opportunity-zones