County Job Tax Credit Tiers Released By State

New state guidelines are changing the state job tax credits that Stephens County businesses might be eligible for moving forward.

Recently, the Georgia Department of Community Affairs released its county job tax credit tiers for 2017.

In that release, Stephens County went from a Tier 2 county to a Tier 3 county.

The tier ranking of a county determines how many jobs a business must create to receive a tax credit, the amount of the tax credit, and other program requirements and benefits.

Stephens County Development Authority Executive Director Tim Martin said that moving up a tier lessens the credit benefits and raises the threshold to meet the credit.

“What that means is that the job tax credit that is earned by companies upon the creation of jobs, the job creation threshold is moving from 10 up to 15 and the credit amount is going down from $2,500 per job per year to half of that amount,” said Martin.

Martin said that Stephens County businesses thinking about expanding to take advantage of the tax credit program can still do so under the 2016 guidelines until February by filing paperwork with the state.

According to Martin, filing non-binding notice of intent to expand would grandfather the company in.

The Georgia Department of Community Affairs says a host of factors are used to determine a county’s tier, including unemployment rate, per capita income, and percentage of residents whose incomes are below the poverty level.

Franklin and Habersham counties are also moving into Tier 3 along with Stephens County for 2017.

However, Rabun and Hart counties remain in Tier 2, which does mean those counties receive a larger per job state tax credit for new job creation and not as many jobs have to be created for a business to be eligible for the credit.