Tax breaks

The controversy keeps mounting over a new tax break for investing in poor U.S. communities. But investors keep piling in.

Home values in areas designated as “opportunity zones” appear to have been affected so little it’s “statistically indistinct from zero,” according to new research.

U.S. lawmakers led by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley are negotiating a potential revival of expired tax breaks in last-minute negotiations over a government spending bill.

Once heralded as a novel way to help distressed parts of the U.S., opportunity zones are now being slammed as a government boondoggle.

The tax break included in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that encourages real estate investors to develop projects in economically distressed communities in exchange for deferring capital gains taxes for years has come under fire for not living up to its promise.

Certain land donation deals that get hefty tax deductions will be under tighter scrutiny from Internal Revenue Service auditors.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, teamed up with several of his fellow Democrats on new legislation and investigations of reported abuses of the opportunity zone tax break for real estate investors.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he had no knowledge that his long-time friend and billionaire Michael Milken would benefit from a tax break his agency approved last year for a property in Nevada.

The 2017 Republican tax overhaul in the U.S. could provide relief for billionaire art collectors stung by the expiration of another major tax break.

Now a few of them have latched on to a generous new federal benefit for investing in lower-income U.S. communities.