Source: http://www.wvlegislature.gov/Bill_Text_HTML/2000_SESSIONS/RS/Bills/sb41%20intr.htm
Timestamp: 2018-01-24 10:18:27
Document Index: 464822715

Matched Legal Cases: ['§5', '§5', '§5', '§5', '§5', '§5', '§5']

A BILL to amend chapter five-b of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, by adding thereto a new article, designated article three, relating to the West Virginia "Job Creation Zones Act of 2000"; providing for certain tax exemptions for qualified new businesses in the twelve West Virginia counties with the highest rate of unemployment; and providing other conditions and procedures.
That chapter five-b of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended by adding thereto a new article, designated article three, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 3. WEST VIRGINIA JOB CREATION ZONES ACT OF 2000.
§5B-3-1. Legislative purpose.
This article shall be known as the "West Virginia Job Creation Zones Act of 2000". The Legislature hereby finds and declares that the health, safety and welfare of the people of West Virginia are enhanced by the continual encouragement, development, growth and expansion of private enterprises within this state, and that there are certain economically depressed areas in the state that need particular attention to create jobs, stimulate economic activity and affect private sector investment rather than governmental subsidy to improve the quality of life of their citizens. It is the purpose of the Legislature to encourage new economic activity in these depressed areas of the state by means of tax relief and the removal of unnecessary governmental barriers to the production and earning of wages and profits and the creation of economic growth.
§5B-3-2. Definitions.
(1) Agriculture and farming. -- The term "agriculture and farming" means the production of food, fiber and woodland products (but not timbering activity) by means of cultivation, tillage of the soil and by the conduct of animal, livestock, dairy, apiary, equine or poultry husbandry, horticulture or any plant or animal production and all farm practices related, usual or incidental thereto, including the storage, packing, shipping and marketing, but not including any manufacturing, milling or processing of products by persons other than the producer thereof.
(7) Mining. -- The term "mining" includes not merely the extraction of ores or minerals from the ground but also those treatment processes necessary or incidental thereto.
(8) Natural resources. -- The term "natural resources" means all forms of minerals, including, but not limited to, rock, stone, limestone, coal, shale, gravel, sand, clay, natural gas, oil and natural gas liquids, which are contained in or on the soils or waters of this state, and standing timber.
(9) New business. -- The term "new business" means any sole proprietorship and any partnership or corporation that does not engage in business in this state, or elsewhere, prior to the date it applies to the county commission for certification as a qualified new business. "New business" does not include: (1) The reconfiguration or restructuring of an existing or previously existing business, such as, but not limited to, a sole proprietor who adds a partner thereby becoming a partnership, incorporates or establishes a limited liability company for his or her business, a partnership that adds or loses a partner, incorporates or becomes a limited liability company, a partnership that dissolves with some partners continuing to do business as sole proprietorships, a corporation that creates a new subsidiary or becomes a member of a partnership or limited liability company, any owner of a corporation who creates a sister corporation; or (2) a business that is related to another taxpayer. Related taxpayers shall be determined under rules set forth in Section 267 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, pertaining to nonrecognition of losses, expenses and interest with respect to transactions between related taxpayers. (10) Partnership. -- The term "partnership" includes a syndicate, group, pool, joint venture, other unincorporated organization through or by means of which any business, financial organization or venture is carried on, when the organization is treated as a partnership for federal income tax purposes. "Partnership" includes a limited liability company which is treated as a partnership for federal income tax purposes for the taxable year. "Partnership" does not include a corporation, an estate, a sole proprietorship, trust or unincorporated organization which under Section 761 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, is not treated as a partnership for the taxable year for federal income tax purposes.
(12) Qualified new business. -- The term "qualified new business" means any new business, as defined in section two of this article, that does not engage, directly or indirectly through the activity of others, in: (1) Agriculture and farming; (2) severing or processing natural resources; or (3) processing pulp, and which during the time a county is designated as a job creation zone, begins and continues to engage in the active conduct of a trade or business in a job creation zone after certification as provided in subsection (a) of section three of this article.
§5B-3-3. Qualified new business.
§5B-3-4. Designation of counties as job creation zones.
(a) The twelve counties of this state that have the highest average annual rate of unemployment for the preceding calendar year, as determined annually by the commissioner of the bureau of employment programs, are each hereby designated a job creation zone. This designation remains in effect until the first day of January, two thousand nine, or when the annual rate of unemployment for that county is such that the county no longer qualifies for designation as a job creation zone, whichever occurs first.
(c) By the fifteenth day of December, two thousand, and by each fifteenth day of December thereafter through December, two thousand eight, the commissioner of the bureau of employment programs shall submit to the governor, the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House of Delegates a list ranking the counties of this state based upon their rate of unemployment, from highest to lowest, based upon the best information then available to the commissioner of the bureau of employment programs. If the twelve counties with the highest rate of unemployment are different from the counties previously designated as job creation zones for that year, then any county that is not designated as a job creation zone for the then current calendar year shall be designated by the governor as a job creation zone beginning on the first day of January of the next calendar year. Any county designated as a job creation zone for the then current calendar year that ceases to be one of the twelve counties with the highest rate of unemployment, shall lose its designation as a job creation zone at the end of the then current calendar year. In the event two or more counties have the same rate of unemployment and the county with the twelfth highest rate of unemployment cannot be ascertained, because two or more counties eligible for designation as the twelfth highest county have the same numerical rate of unemployment, those counties shall then be ranked, from highest to lowest, based upon their poverty level and the twelfth designation determined based upon that ranking.
§5B-3-5. Job creation zone tax deductions and exemptions.
§5B-3-6. Job creation zone conditions for tax deductions and exemptions.
(1) The deductions and exemptions from tax allowed by this article are allowed any qualified new business that begins doing business before the first day of January, two thousand ten;
(A) Interest on loans to a qualified new business are taxable beginning the first day of January of the twenty-first year;
§5B-3-7. Administrative rules.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to create the "West Virginia Job Creation Zones Act of 2000" which provides certain tax exemptions to qualified new businesses, and exempts from taxation interest earned on loans to qualified new businesses and gains from the sale of stock in a qualified new business. The qualified new business must be in one of the twelve counties in the state with the highest unemployment rate.