By Brown of Kaufman H.B. No. 2477
76R5632 CAG-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to a franchise tax credit for certain business entities
1-3 for payment of certain scholarships.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Subchapter A, Chapter 171, Tax Code, is amended
1-6 by adding Section 171.0025 to read as follows:
1-7 Sec. 171.0025. TAX CREDIT FOR HIGHER EDUCATION SCHOLARSHIPS.
1-8 (a) In this section, "institution of higher education" means an
1-9 institution of higher education or a private or independent
1-10 institution of higher education as those terms are defined by
1-11 Section 61.003, Education Code.
1-12 (b) A person is eligible to receive a tax credit under this
1-13 section only if the person is:
1-14 (1) an individual who is the sole proprietor of a
1-15 business with fewer than 100 employees; or
1-16 (2) a business entity with fewer than 100 employees.
1-17 (c) An eligible person is entitled to receive a franchise
1-18 tax credit if the person funds a scholarship as provided by this
1-19 section payable toward the payment of at least 50 percent of the
1-20 tuition costs of an institution of higher education of the person's
1-21 employee who:
1-22 (1) is attending an institution of higher education;
1-23 and
1-24 (2) enrolls for at least six semester credit hours.
2-1 (d) The comptroller shall issue a tax credit voucher to an
2-2 eligible person if the person submits to the comptroller:
2-3 (1) a sworn application using a form prescribed by the
2-4 comptroller; and
2-5 (2) proof in the form and manner prescribed by the
2-6 comptroller that the employee is employed by the person, is
2-7 enrolled in an institution of higher education, and is using the
2-8 scholarship to attend that institution.
2-9 (e) The person must submit the application and proof
2-10 required by Subsection (d) to the comptroller not later than the
2-11 30th day after the date the institution's semester or session
2-12 begins.
2-13 (f) A person may fund more than one scholarship. For each
2-14 qualifying scholarship, the person is entitled to a tax credit in
2-15 an amount equal to the amount of the employee's tuition costs
2-16 covered by the scholarship.
2-17 (g) A person must claim the tax credit on the report for
2-18 which net taxable earned surplus or net taxable capital is based on
2-19 the same period during which the person provided the scholarship
2-20 funding.
2-21 (h) A person may not claim a tax credit in an amount that
2-22 exceeds the amount of the tax due for that report. A credit
2-23 allowed under this section may not be carried forward or backward
2-24 or used to create a business loss carryover.
2-25 (i) A person may not convey, assign, or transfer a tax
2-26 credit allowed under this section to another person unless all the
2-27 assets of the person are conveyed, assigned, or transferred to that
3-1 person in the same transaction.
3-2 (j) The person must provide to the comptroller any
3-3 information the comptroller requires to determine the validity of a
3-4 tax credit claim.
3-5 SECTION 2. Section 171.0025, Tax Code, as added by this Act,
3-6 applies to franchise tax reports originally due on or after January
3-7 1, 2000.
3-8 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
3-9 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-10 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-11 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-12 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
3-13 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
3-14 passage, and it is so enacted.