Opportunity Zones are specific geographic locations, within the United States and its territories, where investors can decrease, defer, and in some instances, completely eliminate taxes on capital gains when they invest in a property, business or business asset inside the Opportunity Zone via a Qualified Opportunity Fund. Opportunity Zones came into existence as part of the 2017 tax reforms called the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). There are over 8,700 Opportunity Zones in U.S. states and territories (like Puerto Rico). There are 879 Opportunity Zones in California. These low income census tracts were nominated by state governors and confirmed by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

Since the program’s inception in 2017, the state of California has created additional regulations for consideration including AB 1445 which established reporting requirements if city or county Opportunity Zone property is sold or leased to a Qualified Opportunity Fund.

How to Invest in an Opportunity Zone Project

To invest in an Opportunity Zone property, business or business asset, an individual must invest capital gains into a Qualified Opportunity Fund (QOF) within 180 of realizing gains. 

A QOF is a private sector investment vehicle that invests at least 90 percent of its capital into Opportunity Zone projects and allows investors to defer and decrease or eliminate their taxes on capital gains.

A corporation or partnership can self-certify as an Opportunity Fund with IRS Form 8996.

Regulations related to the details on how an investment project is defined or what type of business asset investments qualify, as well as what constitutes significant improvement to a property are still to be defined. Read more about the proposed regulations on the IRS website here. 

View Interactive Opportunity Zone Map and Learn More

Learn more about the program and view an interactive map of current Vista Opportunity Zone Projects on the GIS story page here. (Note: A Geographic Information Services (GIS) story is a webpage with information and embedded maps, created on the ESRI data platform. The City of Vista has an in-house GIS expert who creates interactive maps and story pages for a variety of departments.

Resources: Data, Maps and Zoning

• PDF Map of the Vista Opportunity Zone
• Vista Opportunity Zone Infographic 
• GIS Interactive Map featuring development projects in Vista's Opportunity Zone
• FAQs answered by the IRS

Contact Us 

Economic Development Department
City of Vista
200 Civic Center Drive
Vista, CA 92084

760.726.1340

Business Resource Hotline: 760.639.6165
Business License Questions: 760.639.6174

Larry Vaupel
Economic Development Director
email