Empowerment and enterprise zones are areas identified by the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development or the Secretary of Agriculture that have a condition of persuasive poverty, UNEMPLOYMENT, and general distress. To help rebuild these distressed urban or rural areas, tax incentives encourage businesses to locate in these areas and to hire the people who live there. In the United States there are 95 enterprise communities and 29 empowerment zones where these tax benefits are in place. These regions meet certain criteria concerning population, size (urban, less than 20 square miles; rural, less than 1,000 square miles), and poverty rate (minimum 20 percent). Businesses operating within the designated areas are entitled to an empowerment-zone employment credit (EZEC) of 20 percent for the first $15,000 of wages paid to employees who are residents of the empowerment zone, with a maximum credit per employee of $3,000 per year. The employer’s deduction for wages must be reduced by the amount of credits allowed. To further encourage development, businesses within an enterprise zone are entitled to increase from $24,000 to $44,000 the amount they can expense under the Internal Revenue code for the purchase of tangible business property that is not real estate. Linda Bradley