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NE 29-00-1 Tax Incentives 2000-08-07

Which year's labor statistics set the required employment, investment, and wage levels for Rural Economic Opportunity Act incentive applications filed in 2000?

Short answer: Applications filed in calendar year 2000 use calendar-year 1997 labor statistics -- the most recent year for which all required, non-preliminary figures had been reported as of July 1, 1999 (some 1998 numbers were still preliminary on that date). The Department sets these required levels county-by-county and year-by-year; once fixed for a project they stay the same for that project's life.

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This page answers the general question as of 2000. Ezel answers yours, under current Nebraska tax law, with citations.

Currency note: this ruling is from 2000
Subsequent statutory amendments, regulation changes, court decisions, or later rulings may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current tax advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, rate, or position mentioned here.
Disclaimer: This is an official Revenue Ruling of the Nebraska Department of Revenue, a guidance document stating the Department's interpretation of how Nebraska tax law applies. Each Nebraska guidance document carries the notice that it 'is advisory in nature but is binding on the Nebraska Department of Revenue until amended.' Unlike a private letter ruling, a Revenue Ruling is a general statement of Department policy rather than advice to a single taxpayer, but it can be amended, superseded, or made obsolete by a later ruling or a change in statute or regulation, many rulings in this series have been rescinded or superseded, so confirm it is still in effect before relying on it. This 2000 ruling addresses the labor-statistics year for applications filed in calendar year 2000; the required-level determination for later years follows the same method but uses different data. Nebraska's local option sales and use taxes are administered by the Department, not self-collected by home-rule cities. This summary is informational only and is not legal or tax advice. Consult a licensed Nebraska tax professional about your situation. The source PDF is a scanned image; the text below was recovered by OCR and may contain minor artifacts.
About this page: The plain-English summary, reader guidance, and Q&A below were written by Ezel based on the official state tax ruling. The original ruling (linked on this page as a PDF) is the authoritative source for any reliance.
View original ruling (PDF)

Plain-English summary

For Rural Economic Opportunity Act incentive applications filed during calendar year 2000, the required levels of employment, investment, and wages are based on calendar-year 1997 labor statistics. That is because the Act requires the Department to use the labor statistics reported as of July 1 before the start of the application year -- July 1, 1999 -- and 1997 was the most recent year for which every necessary statistic had been fully (non-preliminarily) reported by that date. Some 1998 figures were still preliminary on July 1, 1999, so 1998 could not be used.

The Rural Economic Opportunity Act, passed in the 2000 session of the Nebraska Legislature, offers tax incentives to businesses that make required increases in investment and employment and pay a required wage level. Those required levels are set separately for each county and for each calendar year, using statistics reported by the Nebraska Department of Labor.

How the required levels are set

  • The Department must use the labor statistics for the most recent calendar year that was reported as of the July 1 before the start of the application year. "Most recent reported" means the last year for which all necessary statistics have been reported and none are still preliminary.
  • The Department determines and publishes the required levels for each county. For calendar year 2001 and each year after, it publishes the required levels for each county before that year starts.
  • The levels set for a calendar year apply to all applications filed under the Act during that year.

Multi-county and multi-year projects

  • For a project located in more than one county, the Department determines the required levels using the same data it used for other applications filed in the same calendar year.
  • Once the required levels for a particular project are established, they remain the same for the life of that project. Because levels are set year by year, projects with applications filed in different calendar years -- even in the same county -- may have different required levels.

Common questions

Q: I'm filing a Rural Economic Opportunity Act application in 2000. Which year's data sets my targets?

A: Calendar-year 1997 labor statistics. Those were the most recent complete, non-preliminary figures available as of July 1, 1999.

Q: Why not 1998 data, since it's more recent?

A: Some 1998 statistics were still preliminary as of July 1, 1999, so 1998 was not yet a fully reported year for this purpose.

Q: If I file next year instead, do my targets change?

A: Possibly. Required levels are set per county and per calendar year, so applications filed in a different year may face different levels.

Q: My project spans two counties. How are my levels determined?

A: The Department uses the same data it used for other applications filed in the same calendar year to set the levels for your multi-county project.

Q: Can my targets shift after my project is approved?

A: No. Once the required levels for a particular project are established, they remain the same for the life of that project.

Citations and references

  • Rural Economic Opportunity Act -- enacted during the 2000 session of the Nebraska Legislature; allows tax incentives for required increases in investment, employment, and wages
  • Nebraska Revenue Ruling 29-00-1 -- labor-statistics year and required-level methodology for calendar-year 2000 applications

Source

Original ruling text

Revenue Ruling 29-00-1

Economic Development Tax Incentives - Rural Economic Opportunity Act. THE REQUIRED LEVELS OF EMPLOYMENT, INVESTMENT, AND WAGES WILL BE DETERMINED IN THE FOLLOWING MANNER AND WILL BE PUBLISHED FOR EACH YEAR AND EACH COUNTY.

Advice has been requested as to which labor statistics will be used for the determination of the required levels of employment, investment, and wages for applications filed during calendar year 2000 under the Rural Economic Opportunities Act.

The Rural Economic Opportunities Act was passed during the 2000 session of the Nebraska Legislature. The act allows certain tax incentives for making the required increases in investment and employment and paying the required level of wages. The required levels are determined for each county and for each calendar year based on statistics reported by the Nebraska Department of Labor.

The Nebraska Department of Revenue is required to use the labor statistics for the most recent calendar year that was reported as of the July 1 before the start of the calendar year. The most recent calendar year reported on July 1 is the last year for which all of the statistics necessary to make the calculations have been reported, and none of these statistics are reported as preliminary statistics.

For example: The Act requires the use of the labor statistics reported as of July 1, 1999 for all applications filed during calendar year 2000. Since some of the 1998 statistics were preliminary statistics on that date, the most recent calendar year reported as of July 1, 1999, was calendar year 1997. Therefore, the statistics for the determination of the required levels for applications filed in 2000 are for calendar year 1997.

The Nebraska Department of Revenue will determine the required levels for each county and will publish them. For calendar year 2001, and for each subsequent year, the Department will publish the required levels for each county prior to the start of the calendar year. The required levels determined for a calendar year shall apply to all applications filed under the Act during that calendar year.

For projects that are located in more than one county, the Nebraska Department of Revenue will determine the required levels for that project based on the same data used to determine the required levels for other applications filed in the same calendar year.

Once the required levels for a particular project have been established, the required levels will remain the same for the life of that project. Applications filed in different calendar years for projects in the same county may have different required levels.

APPROVED:

Mary Jang Egr [signer name as rendered by OCR]
State Tax Commissioner
August 7, 2000

[Recovered by OCR from a scanned single-page PDF; the signer name and some spacing appear imperfectly in the original scan.]

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