The U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on Thursday announced the new Qualified Opportunity Zone designations for all 50 states, the territories and the District of Columbia. In all, 6,576 census tracts were designated.
Qualified Opportunity Zones are areas where a federal tax incentive is meant to draw private investment. According to the IRS, 2,594 of the designated tracts are in rural areas. The new designations take effect Jan. 1, 2027, and stay in place for 10 years.
The agencies said the Opportunity Zone incentive was permanently renewed under what they call President Trump’s Working Families Tax Cuts. The release says the changes also added enhanced incentives for investment in eligible rural communities. They also set up a process for redesignating zones every 10 years.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the announcement “will help direct private investment to communities that stand to benefit most.” IRS Chief Executive Officer Frank J. Bisignano said the designations enable “targeted investment and growth” in communities where it is needed most.
The release describes the steps that led to the designations. On April 6, Treasury and the IRS published a list of 25,332 eligible census tracts for nomination. Of those, 8,334 are in rural areas that qualify for increased benefits.
On July 1, the agencies began accepting nominations from governors and the mayor of the District of Columbia. By the end of the statutory window, the period set by law for nominations, 6,576 eligible tracts had been nominated. The IRS said all of them have been designated as zones.
The release says the designation can help these communities attract new investment, create jobs and stimulate economic growth. It says the incentive builds on more than $110 billion in private-sector investment made since the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 created it.
The release does not give figures on how much tax benefit investors would receive under the renewed incentive. It also does not say how many tracts each state or territory received. The IRS said a full list and map of the designated zones are available on its website. It said additional information on nomination procedures was sent directly to the governors and the D.C. mayor.
