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Alpha-Mail

A Tax Professional's Guide to Credits and Incentives, Courtesy of Alpharesults
Vol. IX No. 8 August 2015
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In this issue

Healthy Tax Credits

Spotlight on West Virginia Credits and Incentives

Hello!

Welcome to Alpha-Mail, the monthly newsletter about tax credits and incentives for tax professionals.

This month, learn more about how physician practices, auxiliary surgery centers and other healthcare providers are taking advantage of retraining tax credits. Also, some of you may have clients who own businesses in West Virginia, so be sure to see our overview of West Virginia credits and incentives. We hope you can use this information to strengthen your client relationships!

Thank you for reading Alpha-Mail -- please click reply to tell us what you think.

All the best, 

 Dale Stapler    Jim Tinsley
     Alpharesults, LLC 

Healthy Tax Credits                    
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Physician practices, auxiliary surgery centers and other healthcare providers are continually investing in their business and utilizing more technologies. Many of their activities may qualify for the following Georgia tax credits:
Job Tax Credits - If the practice has locations in Opportunity Zones, Military Zones, or Tier 1/Lower 40 counties. 
Retraining Tax Credits - For training existing employees on new technologies that include new software, upgrades, additional modules, customized systems and business process changes.
 
Look for the following great opportunities for Retraining Tax Credits:
Practice Management System (PM) - main business system for patient billing, patient scheduling, ICD-10 initiatives and accounting. Software includes Athena Health, Allscripts, GE Centricity, Greenway, eClinical and other vendors.
Electronic Medical Records (EMR/EHR) - for digital/paperless patient records, Meaningful Use compliance and related activities. 
Laboratory information system - Lab data collection, test, analysis and tracking.
Patient service systems - patient portal & kiosks, automated patient check-in, and intake form processing, such as Clearwave and Phreesia systems.
Clinical & diagnostic equipment - such as Sonia gram, MRI, PET, and Cardio stress testing.
Workflow and LEAN Healthcare - business process and workflow changes for quality, costs and other initiatives.
 
So reach out to your healthcare clients and prospects to let them know about the potential $$ waiting for them!

 
  

West Virginia Credits and Incentives            
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      As we've mentioned before, our Georgia clients frequently ask us to investigate potential credits and incentives in other states where they have operations, potential acquisitions or strong relationships with customers or vendors. In addition, private equity groups ask us about potential $$ for their portfolio companies.
 
We were recently asked about credits and incentives in West Virginia. Some state economic development professionals outlined some of their details (WV Department of Commerce site click here).
 
West Virginia offers several tax credits, grants and  loan programs along with technical assistance programs that are  available to both new and existing businesses.  CNBC ranked West Virginia #48 for the  cost of doing business in their 2014 America's Top States for Business  survey (Georgia was #1 in the same survey).     
 
Incentives and credits include:  
 
Economic Opportunity Credit: For qualified companies that create at least 20 new jobs within  specified time limits (10 jobs in the case of qualified small business)  as a result of their business expansion project, this credit can offset up to 80 percent of specified business  taxes for a period of up to 13 years. For wage rates higher  than the statewide average, up to 100 percent of the specified taxes can be offset for up to 13  years.  For less than 20 new jobs or for a qualified small business creating less than 10  new jobs, a $3,000 credit is allowed per new full time job for five  years, providing the new job pays at least $32,000 per year and the  employee has employer-provided health insurance benefits. The $32,000  figure is adjusted annually for cost-of-living.  

Manufacturing Investment Credit: A tax credit is allowed against up to 60 percent of corporate net income  tax and business franchise tax based on qualified investment in  eligible manufacturing property, with no new job creation required.
 
Corporate Headquarters Credit: Companies that relocate their corporate headquarters to West Virginia  are eligible for tax credits if 15 new jobs (including relocated  employees) are created within the first year. The credit can offset up  to 100 percent of the tax liability for business and occupation tax,  business franchise tax, corporate net income tax and personal income tax  on certain pass-through income, for a period of up to 13 years.

Strategic R&D Credit: Can offset up to 100  percent of corporate net income tax and business franchise tax, based on  qualified expenditures for R&D projects.    

West Virginia also offers a mix of property and sales tax credits and exemptions as well as various workforce training and development assistance programs. 
 
Compared to Georgia, West Virginia has:
Slightly higher corporate and personal income tax rates, which means that state tax credits are beneficial to business owners.
A narrower range of incentives.
Pre-approvals required for many incentives
To summarize, West Virginia is not as competitive as Georgia for business tax incentives.  But their central location could provide advantages, depending on logistical needs.  
 
Do any of your clients have West Virginia connections?  If so, get busy collecting information and planning early to maximize their incentive potential!

About Us-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alpharesults has assembled a team with the specialized knowledge and approach required to obtain Georgia income tax credits.  We are not a public accounting firm.  Rather, our services complement those of public accounting firms and do not create conflicted loyalties, because our professionals do not perform attestation work or other external audit functions.  
We focus on small to medium-sized businesses and work exclusively in Georgia with a wide variety of in-state and out-of-state accounting firms.  For more information on our services, follow this link. 
 

Quick Links...-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alpharesults
Georgia DOR
Georgia DCA Job Tax Credits
Georgia Retraining Tax Credit Guide

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email:  alpha-mail@alpharesults.com                   phone: 770-667-1332 
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