If we keep putting special-interest clauses in our tax codes like these 'business opportunity zones' without expecting everyone who is capable to come in and exploit them to the maximum extent possible, that is really on us.
Of course! However, that argument is a bit moot when you consider the overlap that exists between political power and economic power, and more crucially this: https://yewtu.be/watch?v=PJy8vTu66tE
The intent is that people will show up and use them.
The main intent is that they be things like machine shops and the like that supply jobs and a bit of spin of economic activity (workers go get lunch etc).
Having people work in a coworking space may not be what they had in mind, but if those people go out to lunch in the zone, mission accomplished.
You can argue if that works well or not but the tax advantage does not exist in a vacuum.
In many states OZs were selected as political handouts and were placed in areas where development was already planned. The characterization that they lifted up poor regions is pure horseshit.
It adds insult to injury that a billionaire real estate mogul made EXACTLY this argument when selling his tax policy and business conduct (I’m just being a good businessman, and I’ll fix the rigged system by getting rid of loopholes!), then turned around and got rid of special deductions for normal folks and created a massive special interest handout for real estate moguls.
This particular example inherited his fathers business, which was valuable enough that a half-share was sufficient to move him onto the Forbes 400 list.
Although his father also trained him not to be decent or honest.
I assume you're talking about the SALT deduction? The one that mostly benefits the highest income earners?
Interesting how when people personally benefit from a tax break it's "entirely justified", but when someone else does it's a "massive special interest handout".
A two earner household with a cop and a nurse benefited from SALT.
The average beneficiary of opportunity zones is generationally wealthy. A pair of tech workers pulling down 7 figures a year are stupidly wealthy and still would probably not have enough capital to be the primary beneficiary of an opportunity fund.
I’m not going to defend the salt deduction because I’m not a fan of it for the reasons you mention, but comparing SALT to opportunity zones is genuinely delusional.
Pitting the lower middle class against the upper middle class over a modestly regressive tax break while folks who haven’t worked in three generations pay a 0% tax rate on the fruits of others’ labor.
