Cal Competes Tax Credit Application Opens July 29th

Are you considering adding any employees or making investment into your business within the next five years? If so, you may want to look into the California Competes Tax Credit to save money on your state income taxes. The next application round opens on July 29 and closes August 19.

Here are some reasons to submit an application:

• There is no cost to apply. This tax credit is offered and managed by the California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) to incentivize companies to stay and grow in California.
• The application only takes about 3 hours to complete. According to applicants, the process is user-friendly and can be completed relatively quickly.
• You could save thousands of dollars on your state taxes.

 
In order to apply for the credit, you will need to know these three things (a rough estimate is fine):

• ​How many employees you will be hiring in the next 5 years
• How much you’ll be paying those new employees for the next 5 years
• The amount of capital investment you’ll make in 5 years

 
See the attached excel spreadsheet and start to plug in those numbers to get an idea of how much you’ll spend.  After all that is calculated, you’ll request a percentage of that total as a tax credit.  The tax credit comes in the form of an income tax credit and can be utilized for the next 11 years.  Even though they only track your growth for 5 years, it can carry over year-to-year in the case that your credit exceeds your income tax bill. 
 
Innovate78 and San Diego Regional EDC are able to provide free support to businesses who apply for this tax credit.  Please reach out to Kierstin Rielly if you have any technical questions and she will be happy to help you with your application.