Thanks to Senator Tim Scott and others, new federal legislation as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 has created several Opportunity Zones in Greenville County.  Opportunity Zones are a community development program designed to encourage long-term private investments by allowing qualified tax payers to reinvest unrealized capital gains in lower income areas.

While many details are still being structured, this vehicle could potentially represent billions of dollars of capital flowing into areas of need – areas that can often be ignored by traditional development activities – and which could result in such positives as new affordable housing, new commercial ventures, expanded service operations, and other jobs-producing investments.

Designated by our sitting Governor, the census tracts identified in Greenville County have historically experienced higher unemployment and lower per capita incomes… making them ripe for such an important program.  The Opportunity Zones program offers investors numerous incentives for putting capital to work in low-income communities, including:

• Investors can roll existing capital gains into Opportunity Funds with no up-front tax bill
• A 5 year holding increases the rolled-over capital gains basis by 10%
• A 7 year holding increases the rolled-over capital gain investment basis 5% for a total of 15%
• Investors can defer their original tax bill until December 31, 2026 at the latest, or until they sell their Opportunity Fund investments, if earlier
• Opportunity fund investments held in the fund for at least 10 years are not taxed for capital gains.

We believe Opportunity Zones can benefit the residents of Greenville County… and all of South Carolina.