NPR.

Today is tax day.

Which means a lot of us are probably thinking about all the taxes we have to pay to the government.

Yes, but today is also a good day to think about all the taxes that are not being paid.

For instance, there is a law that allows people with a lot of investment income to avoid

paying taxes under capital gains if they invest those gains in places designated as opportunity

zones.

Opportunity zones.

So, the name doesn't really tell you that much, but basically these are places designated

as economically distressed because they have high poverty or low incomes.

And what this tax instead of is trying to do is draw investment to those communities.

But one example of that working is this company in LA called Solar Impact.

It got opportunity zone funds to rehab affordable housing there.

There are also examples of opportunity zone funds being used to start small businesses.

Like just a few minutes away from me in Washington, DC, there's a recently opened craft brewery

that got OZ funds.

But as opportunity zone money has been flowing around the country for the past few years,

a lot of it has been going to projects in places you might not think of as economically

distressed.

This is an ad for the Ritz Carlton Residences in downtown Portland.

So it's a luxury condo building where prices for some of the units sell for more than 6 million

bucks.

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