A Trump Tax Break Is Not Spurring Job Creation

[Rogue Valley]

A Trump Tax Break Is Not Spurring Job Creation, Study Finds | New York Times

A report on opportunity zones finds that a tax incentive President Trump credits with revitalizing black communities has mostly helped real estate developers.

A construction site in an opportunity zone in Belleville, N.J.

6/17/20
WASHINGTON — A new tax break that President Trump frequently touts as a boon to black Americans and hard-hit communities is spurring relatively little job creation while disproportionately helping high-profit real estate projects and not small businesses, an extensive new study by the Urban Institute has found. The report, released on Wednesday, draws on interviews from more than 70 key players in the deployment of money — mostly from wealthy investors — into so-called opportunity zones. It is the most comprehensive look to date at the effects of the zones, which were created as part of the 2017 tax law and for which the government has scant data. Opportunity zones are spread across the country, in rural, urban and suburban areas that state and local officials selected, under criteria set out in the law, as in need of additional investment and economic growth. The zones offer tax advantages to investors who take the proceeds of a capital gain, like the sale of stocks or a family business, and invest them through a fund into a qualifying project in a designated zone. Many of the developers interviewed for the report made clear that their projects would have proceeded even without the tax incentive, the report finds.

The tax break allows investors to roll capital gains from other investments into funds that seed projects in the zones. Taxes on those original gains are deferred and, if the investment is held for several years, can be sharply reduced. “Although there are compelling examples of community benefit,” the researchers conclude, “the incentive as a whole is not living up to its economic and community development goals.” “While some black developers report positive interactions with the program,” the authors wrote, “the experience of exclusion is also consonant with research suggesting that funds led by high-performing black men are the most harmed by racial bias from asset allocators, even when all other fund aspects are identical.” black project sponsors often reported that they didn’t have the social networks needed to connect to investors. “But it’s more than that,” he said in an email interview. “The O.Z. incentive just isn’t deep enough to entice most investors to make impact investments.” Earlier this year, the Treasury Department’s inspector general said it would open an inquiry into the program at the request of three Democratic lawmakers

Expected. "Opportunity Zones" do indeed further enrich wealthy investors. But those same wealthy investors have largely balked at investing in OZ construction projects in communities of color.

Related: Trump Tax Break That Benefited the Rich Is Being Investigated

 

[Phys251]

A Trump Tax Break Is Not Spurring Job Creation, Study Finds | New York Times

A report on opportunity zones finds that a tax incentive President Trump credits with revitalizing black communities has mostly helped real estate developers.

A construction site in an opportunity zone in Belleville, N.J.



Expected. "Opportunity Zones" do indeed further enrich wealthy investors. But those same wealthy investors have largely balked at investing in OZ construction projects in communities of color.

Related: Trump Tax Break That Benefited the Rich Is Being Investigated

Not only that, it added billions to the deficit and took away our ability to help out struggling citizens and small businesses during the Trump Recession!

 

[Drawdown]

A Trump Tax Break Is Not Spurring Job Creation, Study Finds | New York Times

A report on opportunity zones finds that a tax incentive President Trump credits with revitalizing black communities has mostly helped real estate developers.

A construction site in an opportunity zone in Belleville, N.J.



Expected. "Opportunity Zones" do indeed further enrich wealthy investors. But those same wealthy investors have largely balked at investing in OZ construction projects in communities of color.

Related: Trump Tax Break That Benefited the Rich Is Being Investigated

Whether they are called enterprise zones a la Clinton or Opportunity Zones a la Trump, they are and have always been gentrification programs.

Anyway, we were in a liquidity trap well before Trump and in said trap we will be until well after Trump.

 

[Rogue Valley]

Not only that, it added billions to the deficit and took away our ability to help out struggling citizens and small businesses during the Trump Recession!

The GOP only cares about deficits when Democrats are in power.

 

[Phys251]

The GOP only cares about deficits when Democrats are in power.

Agreed. If Biden is elected President, the deficit zombies will quickly rise from the graves.

 

[bluesmoke]

A Trump Tax Break Is Not Spurring Job Creation, Study Finds | New York Times

A report on opportunity zones finds that a tax incentive President Trump credits with revitalizing black communities has mostly helped real estate developers.

A construction site in an opportunity zone in Belleville, N.J.



Expected. "Opportunity Zones" do indeed further enrich wealthy investors. But those same wealthy investors have largely balked at investing in OZ construction projects in communities of color.

Related: Trump Tax Break That Benefited the Rich Is Being Investigated

So, then, proof the plan is working. Just like the Trump tax cut for the rich and large corps He said was for the avg American is working. Giving you a cow pie after having told you it's apple pie for the regular guy. He's been standing naked before us all the time while the Trump Cult has been raving about the Emperors elegant clothing.