House Bill No. 80

Introduced By kitzenberg



A Bill for an Act entitled: "An Act establishing a tax credit for businesses and individuals hiring recent Montana college graduates; allowing a carryover of unused credits; and providing an immediate effective date and a retroactive applicability date."



Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Montana:



NEW SECTION. Section 1.  Hiring recent Montana college graduate -- tax credit. (1) There is allowed as a credit against the taxes imposed by 15-30-103, 15-31-101, 15-31-121, and 15-31-122 an amount equal to:

(a)  the recent Montana college graduate tax credit determined under subsection (2); and

(b)  any recent Montana graduate tax credit carryovers.

(2) (a) Subject to subsection (2)(b), there is a tax credit of 3% of the state taxable income paid as salary or wages by the taxpayer during the tax year to qualifying graduates of Montana colleges and universities. To qualify for the tax credit authorized by this section, the employee:

(i) must have graduated from an accredited Montana college or university in the current or previous tax year in which the credit is claimed; and

(ii) must have been employed on a full-time basis for the balance of the year in which the employee graduated, or if the credit is claimed for the year following the year of graduation, the employee must have been employed on a full-time basis for all of the tax year in which the credit is claimed.

(b) The tax credit may not exceed $500 a year for each qualifying graduate employee.

(3)  If the credit granted under this section exceeds the taxpayer's liability for the tax year, the amount of the excess may be carried over for the succeeding 5 tax years. The entire amount of unused credit must be carried forward to the earliest of the succeeding years, and the oldest available unused credit must be used first.

(4)  The amount of any credit claimed for a tax year under this section must be subtracted from any amount of salaries and wages that the taxpayer claims as a deduction for that tax year under 15-31-114.



NEW SECTION. Section 2. Hiring recent Montana college graduate -- tax credit.  There is a tax credit for hiring recent Montana college graduates against the taxes imposed by 15-30-103 as provided in [section 1].



NEW SECTION. Section 3.  Codification instruction. (1) [Section 1] is intended to be codified as an integral part of Title 15, chapter 31, and the provisions of Title 15, chapter 31, apply to [section 1].

(2) [Section 2] is intended to be codified as an integral part of Title 15, chapter 30, and the provisions of Title 15, chapter 30, apply to [section 2].



NEW SECTION. Section 4.  Effective date -- retroactive applicability. (1) [This act] is effective on passage and approval and applies retroactively, within the meaning of 1-2-109, to tax years beginning after December 31, 1996.

(2) [This act] applies to Montana college graduates hired after December 31, 1996.

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