Logo
dictionary thesaurus

enterprise zone

noun

Definition of enterprise zone

: an economically depressed area in which business growth is encouraged by the government through tax relief and financial concessions

Examples of enterprise zone in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

 The state has helped foster the growth of the tech scene and other businesses through its relatively low tax burden, as well as special tax credits for job creation and business development in enterprise zones or economically disadvantaged areas. — Special To The Denver Post, The Denver Post, "Guest commentary: Colorado’s economy is on display, and now it must meet the challenges brought on by success," 30 Aug. 2019 Patrick Preston, spokesman for Hillsboro, said the project is eligible for enterprise zone tax exemptions, which could save Edwards millions of dollars by exempting the facility from property taxes for a period of time. — Mike Rogoway, oregonlive.com, "British semiconductor equipment company will add 100 jobs at new Hillsboro factory," 13 Aug. 2019 State law required the Otay Water District to make the shuttered golf course available to government entities that could use it to build affordable housing, schools, parks, transit developments or an enterprise zone. — Gustavo Solis, San Diego Union-Tribune, "Salt Creek Golf Course is now available to developers," 12 June 2019 During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the PPI actively promoted ideas like enterprise zones, microenterprise in both the United States and the developing world, welfare-to-work, charter schools, and cap and trade. — Lily Geismer, Vox, "Democrats and neoliberalism," 11 June 2019 Opportunity zones sound a bit like Jack Kemp’s enterprise zones or President Clinton’s empowerment zones. — Steve Glickman, WSJ, "Opportunity Is Coming to a City Near You," 23 Oct. 2018 Our overall view of the evidence is that state enterprise zone programs have generally not been effective at creating jobs. — Matthew Yglesias, Vox, "Paul Ryan’s farewell address contained a blaze of nonsense about poverty," 20 Dec. 2018 Academic studies have found little effect from state enterprise zones and modest benefits from federal efforts, such as public spending on infrastructure and social services. — Ruth Simon, WSJ, "Rich Investors Eye Tax-Favored Development Funds," 14 Nov. 2018 The Gulch is considered as a potential enterprise zone. — J. Scott Trubey, ajc, "Texts show Bottoms and Atlanta schools negotiating Gulch incentives," 21 June 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'enterprise zone.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

See More

First Known Use of enterprise zone

1978, in the meaning defined above

Keep scrolling for more

Keep scrolling for more

More Definitions for enterprise zone

enterprise zone

noun

Financial Definition of enterprise zone

What It Is

An enterprise zone is a geographical area (often a few blocks or miles in a town) with a 0% tax on gains from the sale of assets and property sold in an enterprise zone.

How It Works

For example, let's say that downtown ABCTown has decayed over the last 10 years. There are many vacant storefronts, a lot of drug activity, dead landscaping, pitted sidewalks, and abandoned houses.

The state wants people to gentrify the area so that business open, jobs come to the area, people invest in improving the area, and the resulting higher property taxes will fund improvements such as roadwork and new landscaping. This, the state believes, will turn downtown ABCTown around. So, it creates an enterprise zone in which all gains on property sales are taxed at 0%.

John and Jane Doe hear about this and start looking at houses. They form an LLC and buy a house in the enterprise zone for $55,000. They put $15,000 into improving the property. Soon they have a nice house worth $95,000 that they can rent to a college student for $450 a month. They do this for a few years, and over that time more small businesses purchase and fix up homes in the area. This increases the value of the Doe home more—to $100,000. After five years, John and Jane decide to sell the house and travel around the world. Through their business, they sell the house for a $45,000 profit and don't pay capital gains on the sale to the state, saving them, say, $3,000.

Why It Matters

Governments implement enterprise zones when they want to encourage investments in certain areas. The D.C. Enterprise Zone is one example. The idea isn't just to make an ugly neighborhood pretty again; when portions of a city are revitalized, the value of the properties in the area increases, which generates more property tax revenue later for the municipality. Thus, from a government perspective, the idea is to forgo a little tax revenue now in order to gain a lot of tax revenue later.

Source: Investing Answers

WORD OF THE DAY

apologia

play

See Definitions and Examples

Get Word of the Day daily email!