WOTC Extention

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WOTC and Other Tax Extenders Must Wait

Thursday, February 16th, 2012

The House – Senate Conference has come to an agreement on what is now dubbed The Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012.  Expectations are high that both the House and Senate will quickly pass the bill.  President Obama has already indicated he will sign the bill.

Unfortunately, the tax extenders, including the general WOTC extension, were completely excluded from this legislation.  All WOTC categories except for those favoring military veterans must now wait to be extended by another yet future tax bill.

As I’ve summarized before, this situation is not unusual for the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) program. Of the eight times Congress has acted to renew or extend the WOTC program, three were passed retroactively months after the program’s legislative authority had expired.

  • The first was in March 2002 after WOTC expired on December 31, 2001.
  • The second was in October 2004, about ten months after WOTC expired on December 31, 2003.
  • The worst example to date was in December 2006, when the program was reauthorized almost 12 months after its expiration.

In each of these events, the renewal was made effective retroactively back to the date of expiration.  In other words, employers were eligible to claim tax credits generated by properly certified employees hired between the expiration date and the date the WOTC program was renewed.

We continue to anticipate a similar re-authorization in 2012. For this reason, my firm will continue to process and submit WOTC applications under all employee-eligibility categories — not just for veterans.

As employers consider their strategy for 2012, they should remember that even though a general extension has not yet been passed, eligibility-categories for hiring military veterans are already authorized through 2012 by the VOW to Hire Heroes Act of 2011. The amount of tax credit currently offered for hiring unemployed veterans goes as high as $9,600 per qualifying hire.

This is an excellent opportunity to more affirmatively recruit veterans for your workforce.

Posted in Work Opportunity Tax Credit | No Responses »
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WOTC Call to Action – New Developments for WOTC and Tax Extenders

Friday, January 27th, 2012

There are new developments in the effort to include WOTC and other tax-extenders in the upcoming payroll tax cut bill. A Senate-House conference is currently negotiating to extend the payroll tax cut, which expires in February.

Paul Suplizio, President of the WOTC Coalition, reports that Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp is “waving off in advance an expected offer from Senator Baucus” to include tax extenders in the bill. Max Baucus is Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

Mr. Suplizio goes on to explain, however, that while Chairman Camp’s statements should be taken seriously they do not halt the current tax-extenders discussion.

The Senate and President Obama both want the tax extenders in the bill. As a result, WOTC and other tax extenders have become a negotiating chip for Chairman Camp and the House Republicans who want to include other important but controversial provision in the bill.

For WOTC supporters, our job now is at least two-fold. (1) We must persuade Senate conferees to INSIST on including WOTC and the other extenders in the bill. And (2) we must persuade House Speaker Boehner that it will be in the House Republicans’ interest to agree on their inclusion.

Paul Suplizio said it well in a recent correspondence to members of the WOTC Coalition.

“We need to drive home to Speaker Boehner that not including the extenders is putting House Republicans on record as favoring a tax increase on businesses, farmers, communities, and workers—a tax increase they don’t need at this stage of the recovery.”

Is your fax machine and telephone working? Time is short. Time to roll.

Posted in Federal Legislation, Work Opportunity Tax Credit | No Responses »
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HR 2082 – Bill to Extend and Refine the Work Opportunity Tax Credit Program

Thursday, June 9th, 2011

I received an update from Paul Suplizio, President of the WOTC Coalition today. There is recent progress on the legislative front for an extension of the Work Opportunity Tax Credit.

The WOTC program is currently slated to expire on December 31, 2011. While that might at first seem alarming if your company has been relying on the program to offset hiring costs, its par for the WOTC game. Over the years, Congress has repeatedly allowed the program to expire or nearly expire before renewing it for another term.

Here’s a brief quote from Paul Suplizio’s update this morning.

“Congressmen Aaron Schock (R-IL) and Charles B. Rangel (D-NY) have introduced a bill, H.R. 2082, Work Opportunity Credit Improvements Act, calling for a three-year extension of WOTC till December 31, 2014. Congressman Schock and Congressman Rangel are Ways and Means Committee members and thus able to work for passage within the committee. “

 

“This is the bill WOTC supporters should rally around as Congress takes up tax legislation in the next two critical months. It’s important we get a maximum number of House members to co-sponsor H.R. 2082 before the measure is taken up in Ways and Means.”

The bill not only proposes to extend the WOTC for 3 years, it includes a number of very interesting refinements to the program and adds back the disconnected youth category.

If you have an interest in the WOTC program, you should definitely contact your member of Congress to recommend their sponsorship of this bill.  I plan to contact our legislators next week AND to send a correspondence to every member of the legislature about this issue.

Please feel welcome to contact me if I can help your efforts in any way.  I can offer you a mail-merge ready list of US Legislators that you could use in preparing your correspondence.

Posted in Federal Legislation, Work Opportunity Tax Credit | 3 Responses »
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