Congress approved the opportunity zone program as part of the federal tax overhaul in late 2017.

Under the program, an investor who has profited from the sale of stock, a business or property can defer the capital gains taxes by rolling over the money within 180 days into so-called opportunity zone funds, which would invest the money in business or real estate developments in one of the opportunity zones across the country.

Participants can take their profits from unrelated investments and plow them into a fund.

That enables the investor to defer capital gains taxes until they exit the fund.

If the investor maintains the investment for five years, the tax liability on the original gain is reduced by 10 percent. They can reduce the tax liability by 15 percent by keeping it for seven years.

After 10 years, the investor would have no tax on the gain from the fund.

More information for investors

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