Report Title:

Hawaii Work Opportunity Tax Credit

 

Description:

Creates a Hawaii work opportunity tax credit of varying amounts for employers who hire any of 9 categories of individuals, paralleling the federal work opportunity tax credit.

 


HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

1759

TWENTY-FIFTH LEGISLATURE, 2009

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 

 

 

 

 

 

A BILL FOR AN ACT


 

 

relating to the state work opportunity tax credit.

 

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

 


     SECTION 1.  Chapter 235, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

     "§235-    Hawaii work opportunity tax credit.  (a)  Each individual and corporate resident taxpayer subject to the tax imposed by this chapter, who is an employer as defined in this section and who files an individual or corporate net income tax return for a taxable year, regardless of adjusted gross income, may claim a Hawaii work opportunity tax credit against the taxpayer's individual or corporate net income tax liability for the taxable year in which the credit is claimed and for which the income tax return is being filed.  The tax credit under this section may be claimed only once in the taxable year, regardless of the number of owners or the number of partners or corporate officers, by any employer who employs any of the following individuals:

     (1)  A long-term recipient of temporary assistance for needy families benefits who:

         (A)  Received assistance for at least eighteen consecutive months ending on the hiring date;

         (B)  Received temporary assistance for needy families payments for any eighteen months, regardless of whether consecutive, beginning after August 5, 1997, and the earliest eighteen-month period beginning after August 5, 1997, ended during the past two years; or

         (C)  Stopped being eligible for temporary assistance for needy families payments during the past two years because federal or state law limited the maximum time those payments could be made;

     (2)  A qualified recipient of temporary assistance for needy families who is a member of a family that is receiving or recently received benefits for any nine-month period during the eighteen-month period ending on the hiring date;

     (3)  A qualified recipient who has attained age eighteen but is under age forty on the hiring date and who is a member of a family that received supplemental nutrition assistance program benefits for the past six months, or received such benefits for at least three of the past five months;

     (4)  A designated community resident who is an individual who has attained age eighteen but is under age forty on the hiring date and who resides in a federal empowerment zone, renewal community, or rural renewal county;

     (5)  A qualified summer youth age sixteen to seventeen who resides in an empowerment zone, enterprise community, or renewal community;

     (6)  A qualified veteran receiving supplemental nutrition assistance program benefits or a qualified veteran with a service-connected disability who:

         (A)  Has a hiring date that is not more than one year after having been discharged or released from active duty; or

         (B)  Has an aggregate period of unemployment during the one-year period ending on the hiring date that equals or exceeds six months;

     (7)  A vocational rehabilitation referral, including ticket holders with an individual work plan developed and implemented by an employment network;

     (8)  An ex-felon hired no later than one year after conviction or release from prison; or

     (9)  A qualified recipient of supplemental security income benefits for any month ending during the past sixty-day period ending on the hire date.

     (b)  The amount of the tax credit shall be as follows:

     (1)  For an individual under subsection (a)(1) who is retained for at least either one hundred eighty days or four hundred hours:

         (A)  Forty per cent of the individual's first year wages, up to $10,000; and

         (B)  Fifty per cent of the individual's second year wages, up to $10,000;

     (2)  For an individual under subsection (a)(2), (3), (4), (6), (7), (8), or (9):

         (A)  If the individual is retained for at least four hundred hours:  forty per cent of the individuals' first year wages, up to $6,000; and

         (B)  If the individual is retained for less than four hundred hours but more than one hundred twenty hours:  twenty-five per cent of the individual's first year wages, up to $6,000; and

     (3)  For an individual under subsection (a)(5), forty per cent of the individual's wages; provided that the maximum amount of wages to which the credit may be applied shall not exceed $3,000.

     (c)  All claims, including any amended claims, for tax credits under this section shall be filed on or before the end of the twelfth month following the close of the taxable year for which the credit may be claimed.  Failure to comply with the foregoing provision shall constitute a waiver of the right to claim the credit.

     (d)  If the tax credit under this section exceeds the taxpayer's income tax liability for any year that the credit is taken, the excess of the tax credit over liability may be used as a credit against the taxpayer's income tax liability in subsequent years until exhausted.

     (e)  The director of taxation shall prepare any forms that may be necessary to claim a credit under this section.  The director may also require the taxpayer to furnish information to ascertain the validity of the claims for credits made under this section and may adopt rules necessary to effectuate the purposes of this section pursuant to chapter 91.

     (f)  For the purposes of this section, "employer":

     (1)  Means any individual or type of organization, including any partnership, association, trust, estate, joint stock company, insurance company, or corporation, whether domestic or foreign, a debtor in possession or receiver or trustee in bankruptcy, or the legal representative of a deceased person, who has one or more regular employees in the employer's employment.

     (2)  Does not include:

         (A)  The State, any of its political subdivisions, or any instrumentality of the State or its political subdivisions;

         (B)  The United States government or any instrumentality of the United States;

         (C)  Any other state or its political subdivisions or instrumentality of a state or its political subdivisions;

         (D)  Any foreign government or instrumentality wholly owned by a foreign government, if:

              (i)  The service performed in its employ is of a character similar to that performed in foreign countries by employees of the United States government or of an instrumentality thereof; and

             (ii)  The United States Secretary of State has certified or certifies to the United States Secretary of the Treasury that the foreign government, with respect to whose instrumentality exemption is claimed, grants an equivalent exemption with respect to similar service performed in the foreign country by employees of the United States government and of instrumentalities thereof."

     SECTION 2.  New statutory material is underscored.

     SECTION 3.  This Act shall take effect upon its approval and shall apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2008.

 

INTRODUCED BY:

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