Ronald M. Shapiro is assistant professor of professional practice of the finance and economics department at Rutgers Business School.

In December 2017, The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was signed into law.

This federal law provides substantial tax incentives to tax payers who re-invest their capital gains in long term investments in certain economic distressed communities.  These communities, designated as low income census tracts are called Qualified Opportunity Zones (“QOZ”).  There are approximately 8700 QOZs located across the United States. There are 169 in New Jersey located in 75 municipalities. What they all have in common is that they are all in need of private capital to spur economic development. It is estimated that $6 trillion in capital gains are waiting in the wings to be reinvested by taxpayers into these geographic areas.

THE KEY TAKAWAY OF THIS LAW