There’s plenty not to like about President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” that was just hashed out in the Senate, not least of which is that it would enlarge the national debt. But at least one part of the budget bill stands to help the less fortunate, while still bringing smiles to the faces of the investor class.
Introduced in Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, Opportunity Zones offer generous tax incentives for private investors who put money into low-income communities across the country. The 2025 bill is shaping up to provide a revised, 2.0 version of O.Z.s, as they’re known to their pals. And the bill is expected to not only update and renew the program but also make it permanent.
The program is far from perfect, and the political left has complained that it’s just another tax giveaway to the rich.
We suspect that Trump’s critics will grudgingly embrace a new O.Z. program if it becomes a permanent feature of the tax code. After all, other tools for combating disinvestment in poor communities haven’t exactly worked wonders.
O.Z.s were introduced after a bull market in real estate, stocks and bonds left many wealthy investors with profits to reinvest. Those investors were permitted to delay or eliminate paying taxes on capital gains by rolling their profits into needy parts of the country to develop real estate or build businesses.