The House and Senate returned to Springfield on Tuesday. The House was in session through Friday. The Senate was in session through Thursday.

The Senate returns to Springfield next week on Monday and is scheduled to be in Springfield through Friday. The House returns to Springfield on Tuesday and is scheduled to be in Springfield through Friday.

The House Revenue committee met on Thursday. Once again, the committee did not take any action on substantive legislation. The committee held a subject matter hearing on the Invest in Kids program.

You will recall that the Governor's "loophole" closing proposals includes a proposal to reduce the Invest in Kids income tax credit to 40% of the the amount of the donation from 75%. In a recent meeting of the IDOR Director's Advisory committee, in the course of discussing the Governor's proposals IDOR Director Harris advised that the reduction of the credit would be combined with elimination of the current requirement for claiming the credit that a taxpayer may not take an Illinois income credit for any such donations for which the taxpayer has claim a charitable deduction for federal income tax purposes. Director Harris asserted that when the reduction of the percentage is combined with this elimination there is little net reduction to the value of making the donation when the combination of the federal and state income tax impacts are both considered. (I haven't attempted to do my own calculation, but my guess is that Director Harris was talking about the impact on taxpayers who are at the highest federal marginal tax rate.

As of this morning, the House Revenue committee is not scheduled to meet next week.

The Senate Revenue committee met on Wednesday and passed two bills and one amendment to the floor:

HB 571 which amends the Tax Increment Allocation Redevelopment Act in the Municipal Code and provides that the municipality may chose the financial advisor or underwriter who shall prepare an analysis required to be submitted to the Comptroller and taxing districts relating to setting forth the: (i) nature and term of obligation; (ii) projected debt service including required reserves and debt coverage; and (iii) actual debt service (currently, only (i) and (ii) are required). Requires, for Fiscal Year 2022 and each fiscal year thereafter, the following additional items to be included in the report required to be submitted before the annual meeting of the Joint Review Board to the Comptroller and taxing districts: (1) the number of jobs, if any, projected to be created for each redevelopment project area at the time of approval of the redevelopment agreement; (2) the number of jobs, if any, created as a result of the development to date for that reporting period under the same guidelines and assumptions as was used for the projections used at the time of approval of the redevelopment agreement; (3) the amount of increment projected to be created at the time of approval of the redevelopment agreement for each redevelopment project area; (4) the amount of increment created as a result of the development to date for that reporting period using the same assumptions as was used for the projections used at the time of the approval of the redevelopment agreement; and (5) the stated rate of return identified by the developer to the municipality for each redevelopment project area, if any. Stated rates of return required to be reported in item (5) shall be independently verified by a third party chosen by the municipality. Makes other changes. 

HB 648 which amends the Rental Housing Support Program Act. Provides that once a tenant has received assistance under the Rental Housing Support Program the tenant shall remain eligible for assistance under the Program until the tenant reaches an income level of 35% of area median family income and will then begin the transition out of the Program, as described in the rules governing the Program. Provides that local administering agencies should (rather than must) include 2-bedroom, 3-bedroom, and 4-bedroom units among those intended to be supported by grants under the Program.

SB 1747 - amendment 4 -Amends the proposed Illinois Energy Transition Zone act to relocate provisions relating to the suspension of benefits to specific businesses located in Enterprise Zones, along with typographical and formatting corrections.

The Senate Revenue committee also held a subject matter hearing on SB 2132 which amends the Illinois Income Tax Act. Creates a credit for each child of the taxpayer who is under the age of 17 in an amount equal to $100. Provides that the credit shall be reduced by $5 for each $2,000 by which the taxpayer's net income exceeds $60,000 in the case of a joint return or exceeds $40,000 in the case of any other form of return. The sponsor advised that this bill, if implemented would have an annual cost of as much as $750 million.

The Senate Revenue committee is scheduled to meet next Wednesday. Here is a list of the bills currently scheduled for consideration.

SB 2531 - House amendment 1 - This is the Chamber's federal SALT cap work around legislation. The bill was amended to address a couple of technical amendments requested by the Illinois Department of Revenue. The bill was amended to modify payments of tax revenues into the Local Government Distributive Fund to ensure that a portion of the payments of taxes at the entity level would flow into the fund in the same percentage they are now currently when paid at the individual partner or S corporation shareholder level. The Department also requested language that the entity level tax will end if the federal SALT cap is repealed.

SB 1747 - amendment 4 - see the description above.

No tax-related bills passed the House this week.

SB 1747 - Bush - Creates the Illinois Energy Transition Zone Act. Provides for the certification by the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity of municipal ordinances designating an area as an Energy Transition Zone. Provides that green energy enterprises located in Energy Transition Zones shall be eligible to apply for certain tax incentives. Provides that a green energy enterprise is a company that is engaged in the production of solar energy, wind energy, water energy, geothermal energy, bioenergy, or hydrogen fuel and cells. Contains provisions concerning qualifications and applications. Creates the Energy Transition Tax Credit Act. Provides that the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity shall make income tax credit awards under the Act to foster job creation and the development of green energy in Energy Transition Zones. Amends the Illinois Income Tax Act, the Retailers' Occupation Tax Act, and the Public Utilities Act to make conforming changes concerning tax incentives.

SB 2182 - Sims - This bill is the data center tax exemption clean up legislation. This bill is a Chamber initiative.

The May 7 edition of the Illinois Register did not contain any proposed or adopted rulemakings by the Department of Revenue or by the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.

No tax-related cases this week.

None of the new cases filed this week raise unique issues.

The Illinois General Assembly's bipartisan Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability ("COGFA") issued its Monthly Briefing for the Month Ended: April 2021.

COGFA also issued its FY 2022 Capital Plan Analysis

The Illinois Department of Revenue issued Informational Bulletin FY 2021-24 "Change in the Motor Fuel Tax Rate, Effective July 1, 2021 through June 30, 2022.

The Tax Foundation issued its Details and Analysis of Tax Proposals in President Biden's American Families Plan. On the other side of the political spectrum the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy ("ITEP") issued its document entitled Income Tax Increases in the President's American Families Plan