Earlier this month, Colorado Governor Bill Ritter signed into law Colorado H.B. 1001 creating a new jobs growth tax incentive program for his state. On December 18 of last year, Governor Ritter had previously announced his intentions to create such a program. See Press Release (scroll down to Keep Colorado Working for details as understood at that time.) (more…)
Tag: Phil Willon
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AB 1139 was heard last week by the California legislative Assembly Committee on Jobs, Economic Development and the Economy. RestaWOTC (under the name of “Zone Centrix” our CA division) had joined the list of opposition to this bill, which if passed would dismantle the enterprise zone hiring credit program that we have all learned to appreciate over the years. (more…)
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Here’s something interesting. The U.S. Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) program made the on-line Op Ed page of The Jerusalem Post yesterday! The opinionated writer was Amir Tal, head of In Good Company — Looking Beyond. His organization is a non-profit dedicated to reducing stigma and discrimination against people suffering with psychiatric disabilities. Hmm… I’m in favor of that! (more…)
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California’s enterprise zone program made the news yesterday in an article published in The Signal (actually a news release by the City of Santa Clarita). This week the Santa Clarita City Council approved their “21-Point Business Plan for Progress.” One key component in the plan is to invest $50,000 in a broad marketing effort to promote the area’s enterprise zone. According to the writer,
“Since the city was designated an Enterprise Zone a year and a half ago, the program has generated a potential $14,689,000 in savings to local business, a number the city believes is only a small portion of what can be achieved with increased awareness about the program and its benefits.”
The City Council’s Agenda Report on this topic, dated April 28th, 2009 offers some additional interesting details.
“This campaign will include increased marketing and direct outreach to local businesses as a way to help thousands of companies understand the potential tax savings available just by doing business in the City of Santa Clarita. To date less than 5% of eligible businesses have taken advantage of the hiring credits available through the Enterprise Zone, but with increased funding for outreach and marketing to generate awareness of the program and its benefits, this number should increase substantially.”
This comes in light of California HR 1139, which if passed by the State of California without further amendment would effectively dismantle the enterprise zone’s most important tax benefit — the enterprise zone hiring credit. Well publicized promotion of the program by local jurisdictions — especially when a jurisdiction earmarks funding and incorporates the program into it’s own plans for economic growth — might be key to keeping the program alive in the future..
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The American Recovery and Reinvestment Tax Act of 2009, recently signed by President Obama, expands the Work Opportunity Tax Credit Program to include two new eligibility categories that you need to know about. (more…)
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Business owners are understandably confused by the multiplicity of tax-favored zones available out there in this great U.S. of A. Their confusion is aggravated by the similarity of the program names and the over-used acronyms representing those names. Perhaps even you have been confused? Or maybe you should have been but didn’t realize it! (more…)
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