The House is scheduled to return to Springfield on February 2. The Senate is scheduled to return to Springfield on January 26. As of this morning, House and Senate committee assignments have not been made public.
As I discussed previously, the Governor's proposal to decouple from federal CARES Act provisions governing NOLs and excess losses was unsuccessful. In the course of a presentation at the Illinois CPA annual SALT conference this week, Revenue Director Harris announced an intention to attempt once again to pass decoupling legislation during the spring legislative session. This intention to seek such legislation was echoed by the Department's Acting Counsel in discussions at the monthly meeting of the Illinois State Bar Association's State and Local Tax Council meeting yesterday afternoon.
Non tax-related lame duck session legislation
I'm been asked by my colleague who is director of our Employer Law council to alert you to SB 1480. Please see the linked position paper that describes the legislation.
New legislation:
The flood of new legislation has begun. As I have done in the past, I will list every tax-related bill that is introduced with the exception of TIF extensions and proposed income tax . Most of these bills won't end up going anywhere, but at this stage we don't know which bills will get traction and which will not.
HB 154 - Hernandez - Amends the Use Tax Act, the Service Use Tax Act, the Service Occupation Tax Act, and the Retailers' Occupation Tax Act. Provides that, beginning on July 1, 2020, breast pumps, breast pump collection and storage supplies, and breast pump kits are exempt from the taxes imposed under those Acts. Effective immediately.
HB 179 - Mayfield - Amends the Property Tax Code. Provides that there shall be printed on each tax bill, or on a separate slip mailed with a tax bill, each taxing district affected by revenues received by a tax increment financing district. Amends the Tax Increment Allocation Redevelopment Act of the Illinois Municipal Code. Revises the definition of "blighted area": (1) to require that a reasonable person would conclude that each factor of a blighted area is present to a meaningful extent so that a municipality may reasonably find that the factor is clearly present, is reasonably distributed throughout the improved or vacant part of the redevelopment project area, and that public intervention is necessary to address the factor; and (2) to provide that a "blighted area" does not include any area within another redevelopment project area. Provides that a municipality must reevaluate whether a redevelopment project area designated as a blighted area is still a blighted area every 10th calendar year after the year in which the ordinance approving the redevelopment project area was adopted, redesignating the redevelopment project area as a blighted area if it meets the requirements or discontinuing the redevelopment project area if it does not meet the requirements. Limits where municipalities may jointly undertake plans or utilize revenues in contiguous redevelopment projects areas.
HB 186 - West - Amends the Illinois Income Tax Act. Creates a credit against withholding tax payments for employers with 250 or fewer full-time equivalent employees in an amount equal to a percentage of the compensation paid to qualified employees who received a raise from the employer.
HB 187 - Ford and Mayfield - Amends the Senior Citizens and Persons with Disabilities Property Tax Relief Act by reinstituting the pharmaceutical assistance program that was eliminated by Public Act 97-689 and changing the short title to the Senior Citizens and Persons with Disabilities Property Tax Relief and Pharmaceutical Assistance Act. Makes conforming changes in various Acts.
HB 208 - Walsh - Amends the Property Tax Code. Provides that the notice of application for judgment and sale may be mailed by first-class mail (currently, registered or certified mail). Provides that the envelope containing the notice shall be clearly marked "Notice of Judgment and Sale of Unpaid Property Taxes". Removes a requirement that the county collector must present proof of the mailing to the court along with the application for judgment.
HB 211 - Sosnowski - Creates the Local Government Business Anti-Poaching Act. Provides that no municipality or county shall offer any incentive after the effective date of the Act to a business or corporation to move its headquarters located in Illinois, or any part of its business located in Illinois, away from the current location at the time of the offering of the incentive. Defines "incentive". Limits home rule powers. Effective immediately.
Rulemaking
The January 22 edition of the Illinois Register had not been published by the time I completed the newsletter. I'll report on any new rulemakings in next Friday's newsletter.
Court cases
No new tax-related cases this week.
Tax Tribunal
No new decisions were issued by the Tribunal this week. Only one new case was posted this week as of this morning. It is a protest of a sales tax audit of a cash-based business.
