BILL NUMBER: S7946

SPONSOR: MARCHIONE
 
TITLE OF BILL:  An act to amend the general municipal law, in relation
to the local administration of empire zones

 
PURPOSE OF BILL:

The proposed legislation amends the General Municipal Law to remove the
requirement that businesses whose QEZE benefit period has ended must
file business annual reports with the Department.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 of the proposed legislation amends the general municipal law
to require only business still receiving QEZE benefits to have to submit
business annual reports to the Department.

Section 2 of the proposed legislation provides that the proposed legis-
lation is to take effect immediately upon the effective date of the
bill.
              

 
JUSTIFICATION:

The bill would eliminate an unnecessary reporting requirement and save
taxpayers the staff time and mailing costs associated with ensuring
compliance for certified businesses no longer earning program benefits.
Businesses that fail to report are decertified.

The Empire Zones Program was closed to new entrants on June 29, 2010.
Nonetheless, businesses certified by the Department of Economic Develop-
ment on or before this date could still earn tax benefits as a qualified
empire zone enterprise (QEZE) until their benefit periods expired.
Currently, there are over 4,500 businesses still certified.  In 2015,
the QEZE benefit period expired for over 1,100 businesses certified in
2001 or earlier. The benefit period expires for another 700 additional
businesses certified in 2002. Each year, the benefit period expires for
more businesses until the end of 2019 when virtually every business will
have "timed out" of the QEZE Program.

However, per tax law, some of these businesses must remain certified in
order to use "carry-forward" wage or investment credits earned in earli-
er years so they cannot ignore the report because, per general municipal
law, the annual report must be filed to avoid decertification.

This bill would immediately eliminate the business annual reporting
requirement for thousands of businesses certified in 2001 and 2002, then
each year for the next three years, several thousands of additional
businesses would no longer be required to submit reports.

Since the only benefits any certified business can continue to earn are
the QEZE benefits, the reporting requirement will not provide any useful
information about the Program for businesses whose QEZE benefit period
has expired. The bill would allow these businesses to remain certified
in order to continue claiming "carry-forward" investment or wage credits
earned years earlier without having to also complete the annual report
and risk decertification for non-compliance.

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
This is a new bill.

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This bill would take effect immediately.