Opportunities abound in local opportunity zones

Wenatchee Valley Business World
Authors: Lindsey J. Weidenbach and Michelle A. Green

Congress made several significant changes to the individual income tax when it passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.

The creation of the Opportunity Zone program is among these changes. This law, codified in the Internal Revenue Code, creates tax breaks and incentives for those who invest their money into designated “opportunity” zones. In short, the Opportunity Zone program is an economic development tool designed to spur economic development and job creation in distressed communities.

An Opportunity Zone is a designated economically-distressed area where new investments, under certain conditions, may be eligible for preferential tax treatment. Our local officials in Chelan and Douglas counties proactively sought the designation of a large number of properties within each of the counties as Opportunity Zones, which requests were ultimately approved by Gov. Inslee among a total of 139 census tracts approved as Opportunity Zones in 36 counties within Washington. You can find these properties through the mapping feature at commerce.wa.gov/growing-the-economy/opportunity-zones/.

Read the full article here.