Colorado passed Senate Bill 10-162, along with several other bills resulting in significant changes to Enterprise Zone Tax Credits and the process by which Enterprise Zone tax forms are certified, including the pre-certification of credits, electronic certification process, electronic notification and electronic filing. Senate Bill 10-162 establishes a requirement that businesses receive pre-certification each year prior to earning Enterprise Zone business tax credits. This requirement will take effect for credits that will be earned on or after January 1, 2012. Pre-certification is needed for the investment tax credit, commercial vehicle investment tax credit, new business facility jobs credits, research and development credit, qualified job training credit, and the rehabilitation of vacant commercial buildings credit.
If your business anticipates taking advantage of the Enterprise Zone business tax credits for 2012, a pre-certification will be needed for each Enterprise Zone location prior to earning the credit. Business activities cannot take place prior to receiving pre-certification to be eligible for an Enterprise Zone tax credit earned. The information provided is intended to update your company on new program requirements for the Colorado Enterprise Zone regarding per-certification to insure no Enterprise Zone tax benefits are lost. TALX can assist your business in submitting the appropriate forms to receive pre-certification and receive the credits earned.
Maureen Schneider
The Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) may expire at the end of 2011. While specific veteran’s provisions were added through 2012 by “The Vow to Hire a Hero” act signed by the president in November, it is not expected that a tax extenders bill will pass before year’s end. The best hope currently is for Congress to include WOTC as part of any expected bill concerning extension of UI benefits. Employers, interested in contacting Congress to let them know how important WOTC is to helping needy individuals become gainfully employed, should use the resource below to contact their legislators and show their support for WOTC.
Ezrie Yellin
Maryland recently sent a notice to employers about 2012 tax rates. The paper rate notices will be mailed in January but they are offering a telephone number to call and get your 2012 tax rate. See the following link for more information and a copy.
Employer Tax Services
MD_Flyer_December_2011.pdf (66.5 KB)
Vermont recently sent a notice to employers regarding critical information related to the Unemployment Insurance Program. See the following link for a copy.
Employer Tax Services
VT_Flyer_December_2011.pdf (77.92 KB)
New Jersey recently sent a notice to employers regarding important information for calendar year 2012. See the link below for a copy. The flyer mentions the fact that starting with the 2012/2013 fiscal year, employers will no longer receive a paper Notice of Employer Contribution Rate. Those notices will be available in July 2012. Employers will need to establish a Tax Web Enable System (TWES) account. The following link will take you to the website and give you instruction on how to set up your access. http://lwd.dol.state.nj.us/labor/employer/ea/empinfo/TWES.html
NJ_Flyer_December_2011.pdf (61.62 KB)
Employer Tax Services
For the Disconnected Youth (DY) WOTC target group, the applicant must fill out the Department of Labor form called the Youth Self-Attestation. As some have noted, this document shows an expiration date of November 30, 2011 (i.e. yesterday). That date, however, refers to the form only. TALX has learned that the State Workforce Agencies (SWA) were given notice yesterday and were instructed to continue to accept this form for the DY category until the end of the year. If WOTC is extended before then, a new DY form will likely be published. If WOTC is not extended this form will expire and we will have to revisit this in January. Note that H.R. 2082, the WOTC extension bill, reformulates and extends DY as “High Risk Youth” as part of its core legislation.
Ezrie Yellin
As expected, following the House’s and Senate’s unanimous positive vote, President Obama signed into law the “Putting Veterans to Work Act.” The bill was highly favored in both chambers of Congress and received unprecedented support. The new law, portions of which were originally conceived in the American Jobs Act, increases the wage base and adds additional qualification criteria to the “Qualified Veteran” and “Unemployed Veteran” WOTC categories.
Speaking before the signing President Obama said:
". . . over the past decade, nearly 3 million service members have transitioned back to civilian life, joining millions who have served through the decades. And as we end the war in Iraq and we wind down the war in Afghanistan, over a million more will join them over the next five years. This bill is an important step towards helping those veterans transition into the workforce."
The new law specifically implements the following:
- For a veteran who is entitled to compensation for a service connected disability and who has a hiring date which is not more than 1 year after having been discharged or released from active duty, the amount of the wages subject to credit is $12,000 (potentially a $4,800 credit);
- For a veteran who has an aggregate period of unemployment during the 1 year period ending on the hiring date which equal or exceed six months, the amount of wages subject to the credit is $14,000 (potentially a $5,600 credit);
- For a veteran entitled to compensation for a service connected disability and who has aggregate periods of unemployment during the one year period which equal or exceeds six months, the amount of wages subject to the credit is $24,000 (potentially a $9,600 credit);
- For a veteran who has aggregate periods of unemployment during the 1 year period ending on the hiring date which equal or exceed 4 weeks, the amount of wages subject to the credit is $6,000 (a credit of $2400).
A video of the signing ceremony is below:
Ezrie Yellin
As expected, today the House of Representatives voted on and passed H.R. 674 which repeals the 3 percent withholding on government contractors and, importantly, expands the veteran category of the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) and extends it through the end of 2012. The vote count was 422-0; this measure earlier passed the Senate in a vote of 95-0.
The bill now goes before President Obama for his signature after which the new veteran categories will take immediate effect.
Ezrie Yellin
IRS CIRCULAR 230 DISCLOSURE: Any tax advice in this communication is not intended or written by TALX to be used, and cannot be used, by a client or any other person or entity for the purpose of (i) avoiding penalties that may be imposed on any taxpayer or (ii) promoting, marketing, or recommending to another party any matters addressed herein.
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