Day: April 16, 2019

Gov. Phil Murphy said he plans to unveil five grants of $100,000 each to municipalities that develop the best “game plans” on how towns and cities take advantage of the newly unveiled federal opportunity zones, which lets investors offset and potentially eliminate taxes on their investment returns.

New Jersey has 169 zones spanning 75 cities and towns, mostly in urban areas, and investors, developers and local officials have begun viewing them as profitable ways to redevelop the state’s poorest urban regions. Investors would not have to pay any taxes if they keep the investments in those communities for at least 10 years.

BY Briana Vannozzi, Correspondent | March 7, 2019, 5PM EST – NJ TV
View video here

At age 57, Ellen Warshaw is finally living her dream. She’s preparing to move into a new home for aging adults called the Michael Och House at JESPY, a South Orange-based nonprofit dedicated to individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities.

“There’s going to be eight other people plus me. And I get to pick out my room, and I’m excited because I have my own bathroom and I don’t have to share,” Warshaw said.

But research shows that Warshaw’s welcomed situation is the exception.

By Jim Tankersley, March 17, 2019 – The NY Times

AVONDALE, Ariz. — A hotel groundbreaking ceremony here in an old cotton field not far from Interstate 10 last month featured two United States senators, a hot catered lunch and a stream of speeches about driving economic investment to this corner of the Southwest that is still recovering from the Great Recession.

Whether they were celebrating the beginnings of a wave of investment in distressed parts of America, or just another Marriott property, could hinge on a coming decision by the Trump administration.

A new batch of tax regulations from the Treasury Department will establish the most comprehensive guidelines yet for what sorts of investments qualify for tax benefits associated with opportunity zones, which were created by the 2017 tax law, and how investors must proceed in order to take advantage of them.