2020 Census Will Not Change OZ Boundaries: IRS Statement
The Internal Revenue Service has issued a statement that says opportunity zone boundaries as they were established by the 2017 tax cut law will not be changed by any finding of the 2020 census.
Zones were established at the time they were designated and are not subject to change, the statement says, as reported by Bloomberg. The subject of the impact of the new census on the zones has been something of an open question lately.
The IRS cited relevant sections of the original law to support its statement.
"Notice 2018-48 and Notice 2019-42 set forth lists of the Designated QOZs based on census tract numbers and census tract boundaries that existed as of the respective 2018 and 2019 publication dates of those notices," the statement says.
"These census tract numbers and boundaries, as incorporated by reference into Notice 2018-48 and Notice 2019-42, are based on the 2010 decennial census."
"The way the statute was drafted, there was no mechanism to alter the zones in any way," Sullivan & Worcester partner Dan Ryan told Bisnow. "[Changing the zones] would be incredibly unfair to some who has invested in the zones, only to find out their investment no longer qualifies."
