Business Funding Opportunity
Do you have a business that is in an Opportunity Zone or would move into an Opportunity Zone if funded?
The Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017 created nearly 9,000 Opportunity Zones (OZ) in which capital gains on long-term investments are taxed at zero. Each of these opportunity zone census tracts, which had to be nominated by state governors and certified by the secretary of the treasury, plus, had to have a poverty rate of at least 20 percent or a median income less than 80 percent of that in the state. The selected opportunity zones ultimately had an average poverty rate almost double that of more-affluent communities in the given state and were home to a higher share of black and Hispanic households. However, there are OZ’s all over America and not always in hurting areas but growing sectors of these communities.
The incentives created by these Opportunity Zones helped raise $75 billion in capital for underserved communities in their first two years — enough to create approximately 500,000 jobs — and were on track to lift 1 million people out of poverty.