Senate Bill No. 536

(By Senator Sprouse)

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[Introduced February 18, 2000; referred to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend article twenty-four, chapter eleven of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated section ten-a, relating to providing a two thousand five hundred dollar corporate net income tax credit for each qualified unemployed person or welfare recipient that a business employs.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article twenty-four, chapter eleven of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section ten- a, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 24. CORPORATION NET INCOME TAX.

§11-24-10a. Credit for hiring of qualified unemployed persons and welfare recipients.

(a) For the purpose of this section, the following terms have the meanings ascribed to them:
"Qualified business" means any person, corporation or other entity that is engaged in the active conduct of a trade or business in this state, and which is subject to taxation under the provisions of this article.
"Qualified individual" means any unemployed person of six months or greater duration; or any recipient of welfare assistance, as defined in section two, article one, chapter nine of this code, of three months or greater duration. The term "qualified individual" does not include a person who displaces an employed individual, other than an individual who is discharged for cause, or does not include an individual employed and who is closely related to a person who owns, directly or indirectly, more than fifty percent of the outstanding stock of the business, or an individual employed and who is closely related to the owner or owners of an unincorporated business.
"Qualifying employment" means a job, permanent in nature, that pays at least fifteen thousand dollars per year and provides basic health insurance.
(b) A qualified business is allowed as a credit against the net income taxes imposed on it by this article, for any taxable year, two thousand five hundred dollars for each qualified individual for whom it provides qualifying employment during the taxable year, following the effective date of this section.
This tax credit is nonassignable and may not exceed the total tax liability of the business with respect to the specific tax against which the credit is required to be applied.


NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide a $2500 corporate net income tax credit for each qualified unemployed person or welfare recipient that a business employs.

This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring have been omitted.