Title: Small Business Relief and Job Creation Act
Policy area: Taxation

Summary:
Small Business Relief and Job Creation Act
This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow small business employers whose gross receipts in the preceding taxable year did not exceed $20 million or who did not employ more than 100 full-time employees during the preceding taxable year a work opportunity tax credit for hiring unemployed individuals as full-time employees (at least 30 hours per week for 35 or more calendar weeks in the taxable year) during 2018 or 2019. The bill doubles the rate of such credit for employers located in counties with unemployment rates that exceed the national rate of unemployment.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2313 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2313

    To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to encourage hiring 
                        unemployed individuals.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 3, 2017

 Mr. McNerney (for himself, Mr. Evans, Mrs. Napolitano, Ms. Clarke of 
 New York, and Mr. Ryan of Ohio) introduced the following bill; which 
            was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to encourage hiring 
                        unemployed individuals.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Small Business Relief and Job 
Creation Act''.

SEC. 2. TEMPORARY WORK OPPORTUNITY CREDIT FOR SMALL BUSINESSES.

    (a) In General.--Section 51 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is 
amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:
    ``(l) Small Business Credit for Hiring Certain Unemployed 
Individuals During 2018 and 2019.--
            ``(1) In general.--In the case of an eligible unemployed 
        individual who begins work for an eligible small business 
        during 2018 or 2019, the taxpayer may elect to treat such 
        individual as a member of a targeted group for purposes of this 
        subpart, subject to the modifications in paragraph (5) and in 
        lieu of treating such individual as a member of any other 
        targeted group.
            ``(2) Eligible small business.--For purposes of this 
        subsection, the term `eligible small business' means any person 
        if--
                    ``(A) either--
                            ``(i) the gross receipts of such person for 
                        the preceding taxable year did not exceed 
                        $20,000,000, or
                            ``(ii) in the case of a person to which 
                        subparagraph (A) does not apply, such person 
                        employed not more than 100 full-time employees 
                        during the preceding taxable year, and
                    ``(B) such person elects the application of this 
                subsection for the taxable year.
        For purposes of subparagraph (A)(ii), an employee shall be 
        considered full-time if such employee is employed at least 30 
        hours per week for 35 or more calendar weeks in the taxable 
        year.
            ``(3) Eligible unemployed individual.--For purposes of this 
        section, the term `eligible unemployed individual' means any 
        individual--
                    ``(A) who is certified by the designated local 
                agency as being eligible to receive unemployment 
                compensation under State or Federal law during the 1-
                year period ending on the hiring date, or
                    ``(B) whose employment with the employer was 
                terminated before January 1, 2018.
            ``(4) Employee must be full-time.--No wages shall be taken 
        into account with respect to any individual for any taxable 
        year unless such individual is employed by the employer an 
        average of at least 30 hours per week in the taxable year (in 
        the case of the taxable year during which the individual begins 
        work, beginning with the day the individual begins work).
            ``(5) Modifications.--For purposes of this subsection, the 
        modifications described in this paragraph are as follows:
                    ``(A) Percentage of wages.--Subsection (a) shall be 
                applied--
                            ``(i) in the case of wages paid or incurred 
                        by the employer during 2018, by substituting 
                        `7.5 percent' for `40 percent', and
                            ``(ii) in the case of wages paid or 
                        incurred by the employer during 2019, by 
                        substituting `5 percent' for `40 percent'.
                    ``(B) Qualified wages during 2018 and 2019 taken 
                into account.--Subsection (b)(2) shall be applied by 
                substituting `during 2018 and 2019' for `during the 1-
                year period beginning with the day the individual 
                begins work for the employer'.
                    ``(C) $75,000 wage limitation.--Subsection (b)(3) 
                shall be applied by substituting `$75,000' for 
                `$6,000'.
                    ``(D) Double credit in counties with high 
                unemployment.--
                            ``(i) In general.--In the case of an 
                        employer located in a county which is a high 
                        unemployment county for the month during which 
                        the employee begins work for the employer, 
                        clauses (i) and (ii) of subparagraph (A) shall 
                        be applied by substituting `15 percent' and `10 
                        percent' for `7.5 percent' and `5 percent', 
                        respectively.
                            ``(ii) High unemployment county.--For 
                        purposes of this subparagraph, the term `high 
                        unemployment county' means, with respect to any 
                        month, a county for which the rate of 
                        unemployment exceeds the national rate of 
                        unemployment (as determined by the Bureau of 
                        Labor Statistics of the Department of Labor).
                    ``(E) Credit to apply for all 2018 and 2019.--This 
                subsection shall be applied without regard to 
                subsection (c)(4).
                    ``(F) Certain rehires eligible.--Subsection (i)(2) 
                shall not apply to an individual whose employment with 
                the employer was terminated before January 1, 2018.''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section shall 
apply to employees hired after December 31, 2017.
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