WOTC Permanency Bills:
On April 2nd, 2019, Senators Rob Portman (R-OH) and Ben Cardin (D-MD) along with Senators Roy Blunt (R-MO), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Bob Menendez (D-NJ) introduced “The Work Opportunity and Jobs Act”, S.978, which would make WOTC permanent. This was followed on April 10th, 2019, by Congressman Mike Thompson (D-CA) and Tom Reed (R-NY), along with Congressman Bill Pascrell (D-NJ), Tom Rice (R-SC) and Tom Suozzi (D-NY), introducing H.R. 2213, which would also make WOTC permanent. The Senate and House Bills and Press Releases from when the bills were introduced can be found below:
Employment and Community Development Task Force Report:
The Finance Committee released its Tax Extenders Employment and Community Development Task Force Report in August 2019 which includes a discussion on WOTC, the Indian Employment Tax Credit and Empowerment Zones, all of which provide hiring tax incentives.
The five provisions they looked at were:
WOTC
New Markets Credit
Empowerment Zones
Indian Employment Credit
Mine Rescue Team Training Tax Credit
American Samoa Economic Development Credit
The central recommendation of the Task Force for the provisions they considered is that “Tax policy should be enacted with long-term horizons if not on a permanent basis.”
They also recommended some prospective changes to the Indian Employment Credit that would “measure the credit using a moving average of qualified wages and health insurance costs from a set number of preceding years.” This is designed to make the credit fulfill its mission of being an incremental hiring incentive.
Regarding WOTC, the report points out a number of very positive comments that they received from stakeholders:
Sixty-five public comments were submitted on WOTC with all positive comments and supported a permanent extension.
The report cited three of the main program expansion recommendation that NEON made during the presentation to the Task Force:
>WOTC should be made permanent.
>The current age ceiling on SNAP eligibility of 40 should be lifted/eliminated.
>A new category should be added for Opportunity Zones that would provide an enhanced tax credit for those who live and work in Opportunity Zones.
Two Senators Submitted Comments:
Bob Casey (D-PA) in support of his bill to expand WOTC to include SSI Disability recipients.
Dick Durbin (D-IL) in support of his bill to expand WOTC to include youth who have dropped out of school
While no negative comments were submitted regarding WOTC, there were comments submitted that called for the repeal of the Indian Employment Credit, Empowerment Zones, and New Markets.
The Task Force report should be viewed as a positive and will support the contention that there should be a permanent if not a multi-year extension of the program.
To view the entire report, click here
Entities Supporting WOTC:
U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Retail Industry Leaders Association
Buffalo Wild Wings
Synergi Partners
Associated General Contractors of America
American Staffing Association
Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE)
International Colorado-CURE
Feeding America
Goodwill Industries International, Inc.
iFoster
Paralyzed Veterans of America
Partners for Rural America
Legal Action Center
National Grocers Association
National HIRE Network
National Employment Opportunity Network
National Puerto Rican Chamber of Commerce
National Restaurant Association
Retail Industry Leaders Association
Society for Human Resource Management