How a Tax Break to Help Poor Communities Became a Windfall for the Rich

The Trump administration's multibillion-dollar tax break that is supposed to help low-income areas became a windfall for the wealthiest Americans.

The goal of the tax benefit was to persuade investors to pour funds into poor neighborhoods, known as opportunity zones, leading to new housing, businesses and jobs.

Instead, billions of untaxed investment profits are beginning to pour into high-end apartment buildings and hotels.

The opportunity-zone tax break targets at the trillions of dollars of capital gains and profits held by rich Americans and their companies. The tax break is benefiting the real estate industry and it is luring people with personal or professional connections to the president.

However, backers of the opportunity-zone program say luxury projects are the easiest to finance, which is why those have been happening first. Over the long run, they say, those deals will be "eclipsed by ones that produce social benefits in low-income areas."

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