Senate Bill Would Make Opportunity Zone Program Permanent

The Senate Finance Committee on Monday released its version of the massive tax and spending bill that President Donald Trump is pushing for, and it includes a new provision to make the opportunity zone program permanent.

In the draft bill spearheaded by the committee's chairman, Mike Crapo, the opportunity zone program would become a permanent part of the tax code, with fresh designations every 10 years. The first new cycle would begin on July 1, 2026, and would go into effect in January 2027.

The opportunity zones provision was created as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 as an economic development tool to steer investment toward distressed communities across the country. Governors nominated census tracts in their states that met certain qualifications to become opportunity zones, and the country now has 8,764 OZ census tracts.

Investors can receive tax benefits by reinvesting capital gains into funds that either invest in businesses or real estate projects in these zones. The program was scheduled to sunset in 2026. 

In May, the House Ways and Means Committee unveiled its version of the One Big Beautiful Bill, which later passed in the House, and it included a provision to renew and reform the opportunity zone program. It would have extended the program through 2033, rather than the permanent extension the Senate committee has now proposed. 

"This is huge," Savoy Equity Partners co-founder Barrett Linburg said at the start of a series of social media posts Monday on the new OZ proposal. 

The bill still needs to go through markup before being voted on by the Senate, and provisions could change, but Linburg praised the Senate committee's version.

"BOTTOM LINE: If this passes, OZs go from experimental to essential infrastructure for rebuilding distressed communities," Linburg wrote in a post. 

The Senate bill also changed the process through which investors receive a step-up in basis, a key part of the tax benefits, to become more gradual over the course of several years, according to Linburg. 

The bill maintains provisions from the House version that would increase the benefits for investment in rural areas and lower the income threshold for areas to qualify as opportunity zones. 

Economic Innovation Group, the think tank that helped spur the initial opportunity zone legislation with a 2015 white paper, also praised the Senate version. 

"EIG applauds Chairman Crapo and the Senate Finance Committee for their leadership in advancing legislation to make Opportunity Zones a permanent feature of the tax code," EIG CEO John Lettieri said in a statement about the news.