BRAC expects ‘key’ incentive programs to survive tax reform

BRAC has assembled an internal committee of tax experts that has been meeting with state officials to sort through the implications of tax reform, BRAC President/CEO Adam Knapp says. While BRAC, like everyone else, is waiting for the details, Knapp says he expects several key incentive programs to remain in place in some form. Those include Quality Jobs, Enterprise Zone, Digital Media and Software Development, the Angel Investor Tax Credit, the Research and Development Tax Credit, and the Retention and Modernization Program. “There may be tweaks and modifications,” Knapp says, “but [state officials] don’t intend to remove the core tools that we have used as economic developers in helping companies to expand or new ones to come.” Of course, if income taxes are eliminated, new ways to deliver those incentives would have to be found, most likely through a direct cash rebate or by attaching it to something else that carries tax liability, such as insurance premiums. State officials haven’t yet indicated which method they prefer, he says. Regardless, Knapp says tax reform presents “exciting” possibilities, such as the elimination of the corporate franchise tax, which BRAC’s small business council advocates. “Our view of tax reform is through the lens of our small business council,” he says. —David Jacobs