A proposed bipartisan overhaul of the 2017 tax law’s opportunity zones incentives includes long-requested data reporting requirements that would offer more transparency into whether the contentious tax breaks are actually helping long-overlooked communities.
The Republican-led 2017 tax law established capital gains tax benefits for development now available in more than 8,700 designated census tracts—a policy intended to serve as a catalyst for economic investment in areas that were undercapitalized. There have long been questions about who the tax breaks were really benefiting and whether the incentives were being used to bolster projects in already emerging neighborhoods that would have been ...