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Tax Incentive Data/Software
Thousands of Federal, State, and Local Tax Incentive Zones
Overview
Business Tax Incentive Zones have been created and offered to businesses by local, state and federal government institutions to entice new development or expansion into specific geographic areas in the U.S. There are thousands of these zones individually managed and funded throughout the U.S. To assist its clients with determining whether they qualify for these lucrative incentives, BITI has developed the most comprehensive database of Tax Incentive zones available. This database includes all tax incentives which are geographically derived. The database has been developed over the past twelve years by establishing contacts within each of the government institutions and collecting their data for geographic processing by BITI‘s mapping service operation. BITI converts the data from the submitted input format into a digital format that can be queried by software applications or be mapped for visual presentation. Because the data is continually changing, BITI updates and refreshes the database monthly to maintain its currency and accuracy.
BITI's complete national database contains contact names, telephone numbers, and websites of all tax incentive zone managers for the purpose of obtaining the necessary documentation to apply for tax incentive credits in addition to its geographic attributes. The database also includes multiple zone qualification information for an address which may qualify for multiple incentives.
BITI's geographic approach enhances the ability for a client to determine whether a specific address is located within the boundaries of a tax incentive zone, what type of zone it is, who to call for reporting documentation, and the phone number to call. The database vastly improves the accuracy of the investigation, the response time required to determine whether and addresses qualifies, and reduces the cost of determining whether an address qualifies for a tax incentive or not. Many person hours are wasted only to find out that an address does not qualify. Using BITI's Tax Incentive Geocoding software, the client can perform either single address lookup or process thousands of addresses during a single data run.
Knowing if your business location or your employees reside in a qualified tax incentive zone can mean thousands of dollars in tax savings or other lucrative benefits. For example, in California , firms can apply for back tax credits in the Los Angeles Revitalization Zone (LARZ) and realize up to $21,000 in state tax credit per qualified employee hired; or in California 's Enterprise Zones earn up to $36,000 state tax credit per qualified employee hired.
There are many different types of eligible tax incentive zones in BITI's database. There are Federal Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities (EZEC), Manufacturing Enhancement Areas (MEA Zones), Targeted Tax Areas (TTA), Local Agency Military Base Recovery Act (LAMBRA), Job Tax Credits (WOTC), and many more.
Information Detail
The tax incentive database provides the user with the following information:
• Zone name
• Zone type (Federal - urban/rural or state/local)
• Zone contact manager
• Zone contact phone number/email address/website
• Census Tract ID
• Date last updated
Data Collection and Maintenance
The federal zones (EZ) and communities (EC) are well documented and are updated approximately every 6 months. There are two categories of zones and communities that are included in the federal definition; urban and rural. These zones and communities are also categorized by when they were enacted by Congress (Round 1 or Round 2).
The state zones and communities are managed by various departments in the state governments. The geographic definition of the zones and communities vary from state to state. The definitions of the zones are stated in terms of census tracts, counties, communities, or custom geographic areas which typically do not follow any prescribed government boundary.
BITI has developed a database of more than 900 individual contacts that are responsible for all local, state, and national agencies tax incentive programs. This database is consistently updated; each Coordinator is contacted no less than twice a year for updates/changes.