HILL TAX BRIEF: Opportunity Zones Are Having a Moment Again

Lawmakers are starting to look at changes to an expiring federal program aimed at encouraging new investment in economically distressed communities, but some suggest its benefits haven’t gone to the communities the program was meant to target.

The Opportunity Zone program—which provides preferential capital gains tax treatment for investments in certain federally recognized, economically distressed communities—expires in 2026. Opportunity Zone backers want lawmakers to address the program as discussion heats up over what to do with other parts of the 2017 GOP-led tax law that are nearing expiration at the end of next year.

But some Democrats and academics have ...