The House and Senate are not scheduled to return to Springfield until October 19 for the first week of the veto session.

New legislation:

HB 4155 - (Vella) - Amends the Illinois Income Tax Act. Creates the following credits for taxpayers who manufacture electric vehicles, batteries for electric vehicles, or both: (1) a credit for capital expenditures for electric vehicle facilities or electric vehicle battery facilities; (2) a credit for educational or vocational training; and (3) a credit for qualified utility payments. Creates a credit for certain automobile manufacturers in an amount equal to 75% of withholding payments for new employees. Effective immediately.

The Department updated their website. It appears that all of the research materials on the old website have been maintained. The most annoying part of the new website is the so-called "virtual assistant" pop up that resurfaces every time you move to a new page of the website.

The September 24 edition of the Illinois Register did not contain any proposed or adopted rulemakings by the Illinois Department of Revenue.

The September 24 Illinois Register contained two proposed rulemakings by the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. DCEO proposed rules for the Apprenticeship Education Expense Credit Program. DCEO described the rules as follows: "Provides rules for employers seeking to participate in the apprenticeship education expense credit program, including definitions, eligibility criteria, and application process and procedure. The rules also provide details regarding the issuance of the certificate to the applicant business. Finally, these rules detail the process and procedure applicable to noncompliant participants."

DCEO also adopted emergency amendments to Local Tourism and Convention Bureau Program rules, along with identical permanent proposed amendments. DCEO described the rulemakings as follows: "This emergency rulemaking provides for changes in the cash match requirements for grants to Convention and Tourism Bureaus for operating expenses. In addition, these proposed changes include updates related to current grant provisions."

The October 1 edition of the Illinois Register did not contain any proposed or adopted rules of the Illinois Department of Revenue or the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.

Today's Illinois Register contains the official version of the Department of Revenue's modification of its emergency amendments to the Leveling the Playing Field rules. (You will recall that I provided a copy of the response in a previous edition of newsletter.) The Department of Revenue has not yet proposed permanent amendments to the Leveling Playing Field rules.

As I recently pointed out to Brian Fliflet of the Department, the Department's failure to propose permanent rules in a timely fashion will result in a gap period between the expiration of the emergency rules and the adoption of permanent rules. As a result, the Department will be unable to enforce the emergency rules during the gap period. The Department will also be unable to adopt another emergency rulemaking to close the gap period because of the prohibition under the Illinois Administrative Procedure Act of adopting multiple emergency rulemakings on the same subject. Taxpayers affected by this rulemaking and their practitioner representatives should keep this in mind if they are ever audited by the Department of Revenue for periods after the expiration of the emergency rules and prior to the adoption of permanent rules. The Department lacks the legal authority to enforce an expired emergency rule.

No new tax-related cases this week.

No new decisions have been posted by the Tribunal this week. None of the new cases filed with the Tribunal this week raise unique issues.

My latest column has been published in the Illinois CPA Society's Insight magazine. I discuss the recent amendments to the Illinois Revised Uniform Unclaimed Property Act.

The Illinois General Assembly's bipartisan Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability has issued its 2021 report entitled Wagering in Illinois