Current through Register Vol. 48, No. 52, December 27, 2024
a)
Any Taxpayer that is engaged in interstate or intrastate commerce for
the purpose of manufacturing, processing, assembling, warehousing, or
distributing products, conducting research and development, providing tourism
services, or providing services in interstate commerce, office industries, or
agricultural processing, but excluding retail, retail food, health, or
professional services is an eligible business. [35 ILCS
10/5-5]
b) A Taxpayer who is operating an eligible
business that is located, or plans to be located, in the State of Illinois may
be an "Applicant". Applicant does not include a Taxpayer who closes or
substantially reduces an operation at one location in the State and relocates
substantially the same operation to another location in the State.
1)
This does not prohibit a Taxpayer
from expanding its operations at another location in the State, provided that
existing operations of a similar nature located within the State are not closed
or substantially reduced within the last two years. For the purpose of
this Section, "substantially reduced" means a reduction in employment of 33.33
% or more. A Taxpayer may not enter into more than one Agreement with respect
to a single address or location for the same period of time. This provision
does not preclude the Applicant from entering into an additional Agreement
after the expiration of an earlier Agreement to the extent the Taxpayer's
application otherwise satisfies the terms and conditions of the Act and is
approved by the Department.
2)
This also does not prohibit a Taxpayer from moving its operations from
one location in the State to another location in the State for the purpose of
expanding the operation, provided that the Department determines that the
expansion cannot reasonably be accommodated within the municipality in which
the business is located, or in the case of a business located in an
incorporated area of the county, within the county in which the business is
located. A determination under this subsection (b)(2) shall be made by
the Department
after conferring with the chief elected official of the
municipality or county and taking into consideration any evidence offered by
the municipality or county regarding the ability to accommodate expansion
within the municipality or county. [35 ILCS
10/5-15]
c)
In order to qualify for Credits
under the Act, an Applicant's Project must:
1) if the Applicant has more than 100
employees,
involve an investment of at least $2,500,000 in capital
improvements to be placed in service within the State as a direct result of the
Project and the Applicant must
employ a number of New
Employees in the State equal to the lesser of 10% of the number of Full-Time
employees employed by the Applicant world-wide on the date the application is
filed with the Department or 50 New Employees; or
2)
if the Applicant has 100 or fewer
employees, there is no capital improvement requirement but the
Applicant must
employ a number of New Employees in the State equal to
the lesser of 5% of the number of Full-Time Employees employed by the Applicant
world-wide on the date the application is filed with the Department or 50 New
Employees.
d)
The Applicant must demonstrate that, if not for the Credit, the Project
would not occur in Illinois, which may be demonstrated by evidence that receipt
of the Credit is essential to the Applicant's decision to create new jobs in
the State, such as the magnitude of the cost differential between Illinois and
a competing state. In the event that the Applicant is seeking
an increase in the amount of the Credit for Retained Employees, the Applicant
must provide documentation:
1)
evidencing that
the Applicant has multi-state location options and
could reasonably and efficiently locate outside of the State;
or
2) demonstrating that
at least one other state is being considered for the Project.
[35 ILCS
10/5-25]
e) Identify a cost differential,
using best available data, in the projected costs for the Applicant's Project
compared to the costs in the competing state, including the impact of the
competing state's incentive programs, for example, by demonstrating:
1) specific costs of labor, utilities, taxes
and other costs of an out-of-state site or the industry's cost structure in the
competing region; or
2) specific
cost differential due to the impact of a competing state's incentive
programs.
f) In order to
qualify for increased EDGE benefits under the Business Location Efficiency
Incentive Act, the applicant must submit a location efficiency report that:
1) describes the existence of infrastructure
at the Project site and satisfies Business Location Efficiency Incentive Act's
standards for affordable workforce housing or affordable and accessible mass
transit; or
2) if the Department
determines from the location efficiency report that the applicant is seeking
assistance in an area that is not location efficient, the Department may award
an increase in State economic development assistance if an applicant submits,
and the Department accepts, an employee housing and transportation remediation
plan or creates jobs in a labor surplus area as defined by the Department of
Employment Security at the end of each calendar year.
g)
To qualify for a New Construction
EDGE Credit, an eligible applicant must meet the following criteria:
1)
the Department has certified that
the Applicant meets all requirements of Sections 5-15, 5-20, and 5-25;
and
2)
the
Department has certified that, pursuant to Section 5-20, the Applicant's
Agreement includes a capital investment of at least $10,000,000 in a New
Construction EDGE Project to be placed in service within the State as a direct
result of a New Construction EDGE Agreement. [35 ILCS
10/5-51(a)]