Update: U.S. Treasury Approves New Jersey’s Opportunity Zones

As we had previously written, the Murphy Administration recently recommended 169 census tracts within 75 New Jersey towns to the U.S. Department of Treasury for inclusion in the newly-created federal Opportunity Zones Program. The Treasury Department has now approved Governor Murphy’s recommendations. A list of the Opportunity Zones and an interactive map showing the Zones can be found through the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs.

Championed by Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Tim Scott (R-SC), the 2017 tax reform law incorporated the Opportunity Zones Program to provide federal community development tax incentives and encourage long-term investment in eligible census tracts. The Program allows investors to temporarily defer payment of federal income tax on realized gains if the gains are invested in a qualified Opportunity Fund within 180 days of the date of the particular taxable sale or exchange. In addition, when a taxpayer disposes of an investment in a qualified Opportunity Zone held by the taxpayer for at least 10 years, the taxpayer can elect to exclude from gross income the capital gain on the investment in the Opportunity Zone Fund.

A qualified Opportunity Fund is an investment vehicle that is organized as a partnership or a corporation for the purpose of investing in Opportunity Zone Property. Eligible Opportunity Zone Property generally includes (i) stock in a domestic corporation; (ii) any capital or profits interest in a domestic partnership; and (iii) tangible property used in a trade or business of the Opportunity Fund that substantially improves the property.

The Program is designed so that the Opportunity Fund will invest in new or existing businesses or property in a designated Opportunity Zone, which is a census tract with a poverty rate of 20 percent or a median family income lower than 80 percent of the area average. Census tracts are generally smaller than towns, and some municipalities and cities may have multiple census tracts within them.

We will continue to monitor the Federal government’s expected announcement of regulations in the coming months on the structure of the Opportunity Zones Program.