Are Opportunity Zones permanent?

Yes. Section 70421 of Public Law 119-21, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed July 4, 2025, amended IRC §§1400Z-1 and 1400Z-2 to make the Opportunity Zone incentive permanent.^1,2,3 There is no date in the statute after which new investments stop qualifying.

Practitioners describe the change the same way: PwC calls the result enhanced and permanent Opportunity Zones, and Novogradac reports that the law makes the incentive permanent with significant changes to how it works.^4,5 The operative rules for new investments apply to amounts invested in a Qualified Opportunity Fund after December 31, 2026.⁶

The incentive is permanent, but the map, the deadlines and some of the details move on fixed cycles. Here is how the parts break down.

The rolling design is what makes permanence work for investors. Because every investment has its own five-year and 10-year clock, a gain invested in 2031 gets exactly the same benefits as one invested in 2027.^3,7

Every 10 years. Governors nominate tracts within 90 days after each decennial determination date, Treasury certifies them, and the new zones remain in effect for 10 years.^2,6 For the current cycle, nominations opened July 1, 2026, and the zones take effect January 1, 2027 and run through December 31, 2036.^6,8

Each new map is drawn from fresh data. A tract must meet the low-income community test on its own (median family income at or below 70% of the area median, or poverty of 20% or more with income at or below 125%), and a governor can designate at most 25% of eligible tracts.⁹ See how Opportunity Zones are designated and the new zone maps for 2027.

There is no national deadline. The only investment deadline is personal: you must invest an eligible gain within 180 days of realizing it.^2,10 After that, the deferral period is five years from your investment date, and the exclusion is available after 10 years.

That changes planning. Under a permanent, rolling program, there is no rush to invest before a cliff, and sponsors can raise capital for projects with long timelines, including data centers that need years of power and permitting work. The five-year mechanics are in how the five-year deferral works.

An investor's benefits attach to the QOF investment, so a zone dropping off the map does not by itself end the deferral or the 10-year exclusion. The practical question is whether the fund and its operating business can still pass their tests once the tract is no longer a designated zone, because those tests require property to be used in a zone.³

Treasury has answered that question for the zones currently in effect, which expire December 31, 2028 (December 31, 2027 in Puerto Rico). Notice 2026-40 lets funds and businesses keep treating an expired zone as a zone for the substantially-all use test, the 50% gross income test and the intangibles test, so existing investments can reach their 10-year mark.⁶ The notice also says property acquired after 2026 in a zone that is not redesignated generally does not qualify, with exceptions for working capital plans already under way and routine replacement property.⁶

No rule yet addresses what happens when zones in the current cycle expire at the end of 2036. Treasury has said it intends to issue proposed regulations on the transition rules, and the approach in Notice 2026-40 is the best available indication. Until then, sponsors planning a hold that runs well past 2036 should model the possibility that new acquisitions in a non-redesignated tract would not qualify. Whether existing property would be protected on terms similar to Notice 2026-40 is not settled.

Yes. Permanent in tax law means the statute has no expiration date, not that it cannot be amended. Congress can change any provision of the Internal Revenue Code by a later act. Investments are generally evaluated under the law in effect when they are made, but no statute promises that.

Treasury is also still filling in details. As of October 20, 2026, the open items include:

• Reporting rules: proposed regulations published September 11, 2026 would implement new QOF and QOZB information returns under §§6039K and 6039L and the §6726 penalty of $500 per day. They are not final.¹¹
• Comments on the operating rules: Notice 2026-55 requested comments, due November 23, 2026, on interim gains, working capital plan changes, inclusion events, operating businesses and the year-30 valuation.¹⁰
• Transition rules: Notice 2026-40 is interim guidance, and Treasury has said it intends to issue proposed regulations.⁶
• The 2027 map: as of this date, no consolidated national list of the new zones has been published.

Congress also built in oversight. Treasury must report on QOF investment and, every five years, on the impacts and outcomes of designations, according to GAO.¹²

Permanence makes the program a standing tool rather than a one-time window. Three practical effects stand out.

1. 1.Investors can plan around the program every time they sell an appreciated asset, not just once.
2. 2.Sponsors can build durable fund platforms and long-term businesses, knowing new capital can keep arriving.
3. 3.Communities and governors can plan around a 10-year map, and investors can plan around a 10-to-30-year hold.

For data centers, permanence matters more than for most asset types. A large campus can take years from land control to energization, and phases can extend across a decade. Because the program has no end date and each investment runs on its own clock, each phase can raise its own OZ equity on its own schedule. See the Opportunity Zone key dates and data center power timelines and the OZ clock.