It appears that the New Jersey Legislature is interested in offsetting tax hikes due to COVID-19 impact on many small businesses.
Recognizing that small businesses suffered great economic hardship during the pandemic, seven (y) Democrat New Jersey legislators introduced a bill (A3683/ S2378) to give corporate business tax credits and gross income tax credits to New Jersey’s small businesses to offset their future contribution increases to the State Unemployment Compensation Fund. The bill is applicable to those businesses recognized by the Small Business Administration. Tax credits would be available to small businesses for 2023 and 2024. Small businesses that have used other grants and subsidies to offset previous increases would not be eligible for the tax credit.
Assemblymembers Roy Freiman, Lou Greenwald, and Chris Tully are the sponsors of the Assembly bill (A3683) with Assemblymembers Dan Benson and Sadaf Jaffer as co-sponsors. It awaits a hearing in the Assembly Labor Committee. The Senate version (S2378) is sponsored by Senators Vin Gopal and Andrew Zwicker and it is awaits a hearing in the Senate Labor Committee.
In contrast, a bi-partisan legislative effort for all businesses is moving along in a different bill- S733. This bill aims to do two things- 1. allocate federal government assistance money to the Unemployment Compensation Fund and 2. halt increases in employer unemployment taxes related to benefits paid during the 2019 pandemic State of Emergency. S733 is sponsored by Senators Fred Madden and Troy Singleton and co-sponsored by Senators Nellie Pou, Anthony Bucco, Michael Testa, Joseph Lagana, and Jean Stanfield.
It was approved unanimously by the Senate Labor Committee on March 7th and was referenced to the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee where it awaits a hearing date. The Assembly version of the bill (A2152), referenced to the Assembly Commerce and Economic Development Committee, is sponsored by Assemblymembers Lou Greenwald, Annette Chaparro, Ron Dancer and co-sponsored by Annette Quijano, Brandon Umba, and Clinton Calabrese.
NJ CAR will continue to monitor these bills. If you have any questions about these bills, please contact Director of Government Affairs Magdalena Padilla, Esq. at [email protected].