October 19-21: First week of the House and Senate fall veto session.
October 26-28: Second week of the House and Senate fall veto session.
October 15, 2021
State and Local Tax
This Week
Illinois General Assembly
The House and Senate are scheduled to return to Springfield on October 19 for the first week of the veto session.
You have likely read in the press that the Governor plans to propose a package of tax incentives to encourage location of electric vehicle manufacturers and their supplies in Illinois. As of this morning we haven't seen language. As soon as I receive the language I will pass send out a special edition of the newsletter.
The Senate Assignments committee met earlier this week and teed up a series of shell bills that could be used during the veto session (none of which amend the taxing statutes), and also "approved for consideration" a number of bills that passed the House during the spring legislation session, but were not considered by the Senate before the end of the spring session.
Two tax-related bills were moved out of assignments and approved for consideration by the Senate Assignments committee this week:
HB 1539 was approved for consideration and has been placed on second reading with a third reading deadline of 12/1. As passed by the House, the bill amends the Property Tax Extension Limitation Law in the Property Tax Code. Provides that, for Township High School District 211, the aggregate extension base for levy year 2022 shall be the amount that the district's aggregate extension for levy year 2021 would have been assuming an extension of taxes for levy year 2021 at the limiting rate for levy year 2021. Effective immediately.
HB 3107 was on 3rd reading in the Senate at the end of the spring session. This week, the Assignments committee included this bill on a list of bills that were not referred to the Assignments committee. As it passed the House, the bill amends the Housing Development Act and revises the definition of "affordable housing project" and provides that the amount of tax credits reserved by the administrative housing agency for an approved project is limited to $32,850,352 in fiscal years 2022 and 2023 and will increase by 5% each fiscal year thereafter.
The House Rules committee met on Thursday and pushed out a series of bills to the Executive committee which is scheduled to meet next week. One of the bills is tax-related:
HB 1139 - passed the Senate during the spring session, but did not pass the House by the end of May. As it passed the Senate, the bill amends the Tax Increment Allocation Redevelopment Act of the Illinois Municipal Code and includes in the definition of redevelopment project costs" costs of real or personal property and improvements to accommodate public health and safety concerns resulting from the COVID-19 public health emergency, including, but not limited to, equipment purchases and construction costs.
The House Rules committee also approved a number of bills for consideration that passed the Senate during the spring session but never were passed by the House. The bills were moved to second reading in the House. One of the bills is tax-related:
SB 217 - The bill amends the Parking Excise Tax Act and provides that the tax does not apply to: (1) a parking area or garage operated by the State, a State university, or a unit of local government; (2) the purchase of a parking space by the State, a State university, or a unit of local government for use by employees of the State, State university, or unit of local government; (3) a parking space leased to a governmental entity for use by the public; or (4) a parking area or garage owned and operated by a person engaged in the business of renting real estate and used by the lessee to park motor vehicles, recreational vehicles, or self-propelled vehicles for the lessee's own use. Effective immediately.
Rulemaking
The October 15 edition of the Illinois Register did not contain any proposed or adopted rules of the Illinois Department of Revenue.
The Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity has proposed emergency rules and permanent rules repealing the existing rules on the Job Training and Economic Development Grant Program. The Department described the new rules as follows:
"The Department's proposed rules implement the amendments to the Job Training and Economic Development Grant Program ("JTED program") statute authorized by P.A. 102-16, Section 10-10 (20 ILCS 605/605-415). The purpose of the amended JTED program is to foster partnerships between employers in need of skilled employees and organizations that provide job training services and support to individuals, including youth, who are unemployed, under-employed or under-represented with one or more barriers to employment. Employers will be actively involved in identifying the skills needed to fill their in-demand jobs and in providing appropriate curricula and training materials for the programs.
The job training provided by the grant program may include apprenticeships, on-the-job training, work-based learning, or transitional job training and will lead to credentials, licenses or certifications, career pathways, job opportunities and job retention for the program participants. JTED funding also may be used by established job training organizations to assist in building the capacity to provide job training services for other nonprofit organizations with less experience through the use of partnerships, technical assistance or subawards. In addition, the amended JTED statute permits grantees to provide, either through a JTED job training grant or in conjunction with another program's job training grant or contract, barrier reduction funding to individuals in need of additional funds to increase family stability and job retention by covering accumulated emergency costs for basic needs, such as housing-related expenses, transportation, child care, digital technology needs, mental health services, substance abuse services, income support, and work-related supplies that are not typically covered by programmatic supportive services.
Funding for the State Fiscal Year 2022 JTED program will be provided from the funds received by the State from the federal Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Fund, Section 9901 of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, P.L. 117-2, 42 USC 802. The focus of these funds will be to provide job training and other assistance to individuals who have experienced negative economic or public health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and are among the most vulnerable residents − unemployed, under-employed or under-represented individuals with one or more barriers to employment. This funding will be critical to assisting those most in need who experienced economic or public health harm due to the COVID-19 pandemic and will assist the Illinois economy in getting back on track.
Court cases
No new tax-related cases this week.
Tax Tribunal
No new decisions have been posted by the Tribunal this week. No unique issues were raised in the cases filed with the Tribunal this week.
The Department issued notice of local government tax rate changes to take effect January 1, 2022.
IDOR letter rulings:
No income tax private letter rulings dated in 2021 have been published by the Department. The general information letters published by the Department so far this year do not appear to raise any unique issues. Here is a link to the Department's webpage for 2021 income tax ruling letters.
The Department has published by my count 29 sales tax general information letters so far this year and 4 private letter rulings. Here is a link to the Department's web page for sales tax rulings published so far this year. I note that the list of private letter rulings has ruling number ST 21-0003-PLR followed by ruling number ST 21-0014-PLR, with no rulings published from 0003 to 0014. I have asked the Department whether this is a typo or whether there are other unpublished rulings? My guess is that it is a typo because if you click on the link for 21-0003-PLR you are taken to a private letter that matches the description for 21-0014-PLR and when you click on the link for 21--0014 you get a private letter ruling that matches the description for 21-0003 and both letters are numbered 21-0003 - confused yet?
In any event, take a look at the ruling described in 21-0014, but linked at ST 21-0003-PLR. This letter ruling is an interesting discussion of the sales taxation of leases to governmental bodies and the temporary storage exemption. I didn't see anything new in the ruling, but it is a good refresher on the law and rules on these subjects.
IDOR Job Postings:
The Department of Revenue asked me to post the following job openings:
"Our Revenue Auditor Trainee titles are open with many openings across the State. See the link below for Sangamon County as well as a few other exciting openings."
