OPPORTUNITY ZONES MEAN BUSINESS FOR BRUNSWICK by Joey Strength
M
y number one recommendation to business owners for the remainder of 2019 is to consider how your business might benefit from the Investing in Opportunity Act legislation contained within the 2017 Tax Cut and Jobs Act. The Investing in Opportunity Act authorized governors to designate up to 25 percent of low-income census tracts within their states as federal opportunity zones. Investors who make qualified investments of capital gains in these zones through a qualified oppor-
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tunity fund may receive three forms of tax benefits: deferral of tax on the invested gains, partial forgiveness of the tax on the invested gains (up to 15 percent if the investment is made in 2019 and held for seven years), and full forgiveness of the capital gains on the sale of the investment in the qualified opportunity fund if it is held for ten years or more. This third benefit is the most significant one for many business owners. It allows a business owner to create a new business, relocate an existing business, or expand an existing busi-
ness in an opportunity zone and then structure the sale of that business, if held for more than ten years, without owing any tax (capital gains and perhaps depreciation recapture) on the sale. Officials from the U.S. Treasury have acknowledged the possibilities of this incentive and suggested that they hope it, along with the other incentives, will be significant enough to encourage the next Amazon to be started in an opportunity zone. Significant portions of Brunswick, including most of downtown, and parts of mainland
