This GAO report describes the process for designating census tracts as Opportunity Zones and compares characteristics of designated and non-designated tracts; describes Qualified Opportunity Funds' experiences with and states' views on the tax incentive; analyzes available IRS data; and evaluates IRS's taxpayer compliance plans, among other objectives.

Opportunity Zones are a powerful way to encourage revitalization in economically distressed communities. Redevelopment of current or former Superfund sites may qualify for Opportunity Zone tax benefits. View this EPA fact sheet for more information.

There are over 300 Superfund National Priorities List sites and thousands of Superfund removal sites located in or partially in Opportunity Zones. This webinar discussed Opportunity Zone tax benefits in the context of redeveloping Superfund sites and other types of contaminated properties and how communities, local governments, and developers can utilize these benefits.

This Congressional Research Service report discusses (1) which census tracts have been designated as an OZ, (2) what types of entities are eligible as QOFs, (3) the tax benefits of investments in QOFs, (4) a summary of IRS/Treasury regulations implementing OZs, (5) what economic effects can be expected from OZ tax incentives, and (6) what policy issues Congress has raised with respect to OZs.

In response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the IRS recently issued IRS Notice 2020-39, which provides certain relief related to the calculation of time-sensitive deadlines under the federal Opportunity Zone program outlined in Internal Revenue Code Section 1400Z-2 and the underlying Treasury Regulations. This post from Frost Brown Todd analyzes these regulatory changes.

This GAO report describes the process for designating census tracts as Opportunity Zones and compares characteristics of designated and non-designated tracts; describes Qualified Opportunity Funds' experiences with and states' views on the tax incentive; analyzes available IRS data; and evaluates IRS's taxpayer compliance plans, among other objectives.

This 2021 EIG report explores whether the Opportunity Zones policy and regulations are working as intended, what its early effects have been, and details the improvements needed to ensure the policy fulfills its promise. While the early findings from the field provide cause for optimism, there is room for policy improvements and continued opportunities to educate investors, local leaders, and other stakeholders.

To address local disparities and help struggling areas thrive, governments at all levels have spent billions of dollars on a range of geographically targeted, or "place-based," economic development programs — mostly in the form of financial incentives — designed to boost job creation and business investment, incentivize real estate development, or increase property values in specific places. The Pew Charitable Trusts performed a literature review of more than 100 studies to better understand the reasons for the lack of effectiveness of place-based programs.

This quick guide, authored by CDFA and Skeo, outlines five key strategies for engaging Opportunity Zones investors including resources and tips that can help communities attract investment to their revitalization efforts.

This guide, authored by CDFA and Skeo, provides an overview of various development finance tools and suggestions for how communities could use these tools to finance projects in Opportunity Zones. Each section includes additional resources to learn more, along with case studies to illustrate how development finance tools have been used to support revitalization goals in several Opportunity Zones.

This guide from Bricker Graydon outlines the array of tools with which Ohio economic development practitioners can intervene to stimulate or induce development to occur — or occur sooner than market forces sometimes allow — in their communities. This guide also assists practitioners by identifying programs, clarifying changes to existing programs, and introducing effective new options to consider. If knowledge is power, this guide provides practitioners with the unique ability to empower their communities or businesses to accomplish a variety of economic development objectives.

Arctaris Impact Investors, LLC, delivered on significant objectives in 2021, and the firm is pleased to share its results with stakeholders in this Annual Impact Report. In 2021, the firm added 9 team members, strengthened its national voice in Opportunity Zones and Impact Investing, and completed its capital raise for its 6th fund, becoming most likely the largest impact-focused OZ fund and also one of the largest impact firms nationally. As Arctaris now has launched its 7th fund, the Arctaris Opportunity Zone Fund 2022, LLC, again capitalizing on the Opportunity Zone incentive, we can pause a brief moment to reflect our gratitude to the incredible group of investors, government and foundation partners who have joined this initiative.

This resource offers a section-by-section summary of the bipartisan, bicameral bill to reform opportunity zones introduced by Senators Booker, Scott, and Kelly. This legislation would reinstating and expanding the reporting requirements, ending Opportunity Zones that are not impoverished, create pathways for smaller-dollar impact investments, and more.

Senators Booker and Scott and Representatives Kind and Kelly, along with Senators Warner, Young, and Van Hollen, and Representatives Sewell, Walorski, and Kildee, propose a series of improvements to the Opportunity Zones policy to further their shared vision for the program to catalyze funding to these communities and level the economic playing field for their residents.

U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Tim Scott (R-SC) and U.S. Representatives Ron Kind (D-WI) and Mike Kelly (R-PA) introduced a bipartisan, bicameral bill reforming Opportunity Zones, the tax incentive for individuals who reinvest unrealized capital gains into high-impact projects in underserved communities.