|
| Business Incentives |
Gulf Opportunity Zone
Under new U.S. House Bill 4440, there are additional tax credits and benefits for which your company may qualify when investing in Louisiana’s Gulf Opportunity Zone (“GO Zone”). These programs do not exist in most other states and may provide substantial benefits to your company.
The incentives provide primarily for accelerated depreciation of capital expenditures and low interest bond financing. The low interest bonds will usually provide a 2% savings to the borrower below their current bond rating.
Louisiana Enterprise Zone Program
$2,500 tax credit for each net new permanent job created during the first five years of operation. Rebate of Louisiana 4% sales/use tax on materials, machinery, equipment purchased during the construction period and used exclusively on site.
Quality Jobs Program
Rebates of up to 6% of a qualifying company’s gross annual payroll associated with new jobs created by a company for up to ten years. Possible rebate of the state’s 4% sales/use tax on materials, machinery, equipment purchased during the construction period and used exclusively on site.
Industrial Property Tax Exemption
Rebates local property taxes for ten years on a manufacturer’s investment in buildings, machinery, equipment, and other properties that are part of the manufacturing process and remain on plant site.
Research & Development Credit
Provides tax credits for R&D activities from 8% to 20% to companies claiming federal income tax credit for research activities.
State Corporate Tax Reform
Louisiana has recently embraced two significant measures of corporate tax reform designed to foster growth of industry in our state and improve your bottom line.
Corporate Income Tax
The “Louisiana Headquarters and Growth Act of 2006” restructured Louisiana’s tax code to reduce taxes for many Louisiana businesses and encourage companies to locate their headquarters in the state. The act includes major changes to Louisiana’s tax structure, such as making income from dividends and interest tax-exempt for all companies doing business in Louisiana, as well as a portion of capital gains.
The effect is to level the playing field between businesses that have their headquarters in Louisiana and out-of-state corporations that do business in Louisiana. Before this legislation, companies headquartered in Louisiana paid tax on 100 percent of their income from interest, dividends and capital gains and out-of-state companies paid no tax on this income. Now, no corporations will owe tax on interest and dividends they receive and both an in-state and out-of-state corporation will only pay tax on capital gains to the extent they actually do business in Louisiana.
Corporate Franchise Tax
Under Louisiana law, a corporation’s state franchise tax base is the entire liability section of the balance sheet, less debt incurred and paid off in less than 12 months. In other words, in the past, corporations have been taxed on debt. As of January 21, 2006, Louisiana began phasing out the corporate franchise tax on debt, and it will be completely eliminated from the tax base in 2012.
|
|
|
