| Reservation Enterprise Zone |
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| Zone designation |
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- Since 2001, a federally-recognized tribe may, at any time, designate an area as a "reservation enterprise zone" under ORS 285C.306
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The proposed area to be designated must consist only of land on the tribe's reservation that is held in trust by the U.S. for the benefit of the tribe.
- To qualify, the reservation needs to be located entirely in Oregon and its needs to satisfy two economic criteria:
- median household income that is 80% or less of state level based on latest federal decennial census for reservation inhabitants, and
- unemployment rate that is 2 percentage-points or more higher than the state rate based on latest published/official data from any number of sources for tribal members.
- The tribal governing body adopts a resolution to effect designation and submits it, along with boundary map and other evidence, to the Oregon Economic & Community Development Department for review and ratification.
- Designation is not subject to statewide limit on enterprise zones or to regular restrictions on total area or distances inside the zone.
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| Designated zone |
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- Catagorized as a "rural" enterprise zone like 40-some other designations statewide.
- The "zone sponsor" is the tribal government.
- Following designation, the zone sponsor may seek to change or expand the boundary of the reservation enterprise zone through an official request to the department that satisfies regular statutory provisions under ORS 285C.115.
- These provisions include but are not limited to:
- adherence to regular restrictions on total area and distances inside the zone, and
- co-sponsorship/consent by any city, port or county government that has effective jurisdiction over an area to be added, especially "fee" land
- A reservation enterprise zone terminates after 10 years, but it may be redesignated subject to the criteria above.
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| Tax incentives for business development in the zone |
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Regular exemptions from local taxes on qualifying business property—both:
- standard exemption of three to five years, and
- long-term rural incentives (up to 15 years), as applicable
- Special reservation enterprise zone tax credit:
- offsets state income tax liability with tribal tax to "level playing field" on reservation,
- good for most any type of business operations that is new to zone/reservation after 2001,
- firm claims on tax return using special form, and
- equals 100% of all tribal taxes in the first year of operations and 100% of annual tribal property taxes thereafter, up to state income tax liability with no carry-forward of unused credits.
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