FEDC Board of Directors Approves 2021 Legislative Priorities
In the summer of 2020, FEDC formed an Economic Recovery Task Force to evaluate the impact of losing the state-level tax refund program for competitive business recruitment and expansion projects called the Qualified Target Industry (QTI) Tax Refund program.
The task force submitted a series of recommendations to the Executive Office of the Governor, DEO, and Enterprise Florida in support of reinstating a modernized QTI program. This has become the cornerstone of the FEDC legislative priorities for 2021. Thank you to FEDC members who provided research, project data, and analysis.
FEDC Legislative Priorities
Reinstate F.S. 288.106 Qualified Target Industry Tax Refund program, with the following modifications:
• Change average wage requirement to median wage to more accurately capture wages
paid to the majority of jobs created by the project or the average of the industry in that
county.
• Increase base QTI Amounts to $4,000 per new job created.
• Replace “Enterprise Zones” with “Opportunity Zones” to provide a $6,000 base award per job created for projects that locate in those areas.
• Simplify the Port Cargo/Airport Cargo Bonus.
Update F.S. 220.196 Research and Development Tax Credit to increase the cap from $9 million to $50 million with up to $10 million reserved for research companies who are restoring operations to Florida.
FEDC supports maintaining and enhancing the CareerSource Florida Quick Response Training (QRT) grant program.
FEDC is following a large number of bills for the upcoming session of the legislature. They include:
SB 50: Sales and Use Tax
GENERAL BILL by Gruters
Sales and Use Tax; Expanding the definition of the term “retail sale” to include sales facilitated through a marketplace; defining the terms “remote sale” and “substantial number of remote sales”; providing that every person making a substantial number of remote sales is a dealer for purposes of the sales and use tax; providing that certain marketplace providers are dealers for purposes of the sales and use tax; providing that a marketplace seller, rather than the marketplace provider, is liable for sales tax collection and remittance under certain circumstances, etc.
HB 15 - Sales and Use Tax
General Bill by Clemons and LaMarca (CO-SPONSORS) Fernandez-Barquin; Grieco; Hinson; Robinson, W.; Skidmore; Smith, D.; Tant
