Gray Rohrer
The Senate’s tax cut package (SB 7074) is growing to help expand child care options and assist railroad companies.
The bill that cleared the Senate Finance and Tax Committee earlier in the month contained numerous cuts for businesses and consumers amounting to $900 million over two years, but the Senate Appropriations Committee has added amendments to provide a new tax credit for child care and expand an existing credit for railroads.
Under the bill, businesses operating a child care facility or paying child care costs for their employees could get a tax credit against corporate income taxes or other tax liabilities. A business with up to 19 employees could receive up to $1 million for startup costs associated with setting up a child care center; for a company with 20-250 employees, the credit is capped at $500,000 per year; and a company with more than 250 workers could get a $250,000 maximum credit.
And businesses who operate a center or pay part of their employees’ child care costs could get a credit, too. The maximum credit is $3,600 per child per year, or $300 per month, with total credits capped at $50,000 per year for businesses with less than 20 employees; at $500,000 for businesses with 20-250 employees; and at $1 million per year for companies with more than 250 workers.
The bill also expands a credit for railroad companies, but that measure hasn’t been analyzed by state economists so it’s unclear how much it will cost the state.
Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, a Spring Hill Republican sponsoring the bill, said it was designed to grant tax relief to as many Floridians as possible.
“(Senate President Kathleen Passidomo) gave me great latitude to put stuff in the package that I thought was going to be the most broad based tax relief,” Ingoglia said.
One major piece of the measure would cut insurance premium taxes and assessments for homeowners, saving the average homeowner $63 on their rates, which have shot up in recent years. The move will cost the state $309 million over two years.
“It’s not a huge amount, but in this environment every little bit helps,” Ingoglia said.
Other parts of the include a series of familiar sales tax holidays, albeit restricted from the holidays approved for the past year.
There’s a two-week holiday on back-to-school items starting July 29; a one-week holiday on tools starting Sept. 1; and two separate two-week sales tax holidays for disaster preparedness items, starting June 1 and August 24. Also, last year’s “Freedom Summer,” with sales taxes exempted for event tickets to museums, sporting events, plays, festivals, fairs and more, as well as outdoor items, which lasted three months in the summer, has been reduced to “Freedom Month” and will last all of July.
The House version of the bill (HB 7073) includes the sales tax holidays but contains many differences with the Senate, which will have to be resolved in the final two weeks of the Regular Session.
One of the major differences is a reduction in the business rent tax, which is paid on a sales tax on leases and is set to fall to 2% in August. The House bill would cut the rate to 1.25% starting July 1. State economists project the move to save businesses $308.6 million, a reduction from the previous estimate of nearly $340 million. The Senate bill doesn’t include the business rent tax reduction.
Another major difference is a plan to boost the allowance for businesses remitting sales taxes to the state from $30 to $45, saving businesses $47.3 million next year. The provision is in the Senate plan but not in the House plan.
One comment
Dont Say WAG
February 27, 2024 at 2:24 pm
Wild guess here, but has Mrs Ingoglia recently decided to dabble in child care services? G0P don’t never do nothin’ for nobody without their side hustle making it be something for them too.
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