PROVIDENCE – A total of roughly $54 million in state tax credits and incentives were claimed in the fiscal year ended June 30, the R.I. Department of Revenue said today in its first annual tax-credit disclosure report.
The report, required under legislation recently enacted by the R.I. General Assembly, “will enhance analysis of the costs and benefits of tax credits used to encourage business growth within Rhode Island,” Gary S. Sasse, director of the state Department of Revenue, said in a statement today.
Covered by the document are tax credits, incentives, matching funds, bonds, grants, loans and loan guarantees awarded in FY 2008 under six separate programs. (Incentives awarded under other programs – including the R.I. Historic Preservation Investment Tax Credit program – are not covered by the reporting requirement and so are not covered by today’s report.) Included in the total are:
• About $21 million in business corporation, bank and insurance tax credits that were issued under the state Jobs Development Act to 12 companies that expanded their base staffing level. Top recipients were Woonsocket-based CVS Pharmacy Inc., getting about $13.88 million; and Pharmacare Management Services Inc., also of Woonsocket, getting about $4.72 million; and Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America N.A., getting about $1.72 million.
• About $18.2 million in construction-material tax credits for new facilities that were issued by the EDC to 13 companies. Top recipients were FMR Corp. of Boston and its subcontractors, receiving about $9.96 million; CVS Pharmacy Corp., receiving about $3.34 million; and UTGR Inc. of Lincoln, about $2.41 million.
• About $12.8 million in Motion Picture Production Tax Credits, on projects with production budgets of at least $300,000 that were filmed mostly or entirely in the Ocean State, that were issued to four recipients: about $5.48 million to Brotherhood Productions Inc., care of Showtime Networks Inc. of Los Angeles; about $4.14 million to Bridesmaid Productions LLC of Los Angeles; about $3.01 million to Hachiko Productions LLC, care of Inferno Distribution LLC of Los Angeles; and about $152,470 to Two Prong Lesson LLC of Newport.
• About $1.8 million in various credits that were issued, under the state Distressed Areas Economic Revitalization Act, to 87 qualified enterprise-zone businesses that expanded their staffs. Awards ranged from the $222 in credits received by Al Jac’s Inc. of Providence to the $120,000 received by Parsippany, N.J.-based Tiffany & Co.
• Incentives for Innovation and Growth credits amounting to $305,000 that were issued by the EDC – based on the advice of the R.I. Science and Technology Council (STAC) – to four recipients, whose awards ranged from $5,000 to $100,000.
• No credits were awarded in FY 2008 under the Mill Building and Economic Revitalization Act, which allows investment tax credits to owners of substantially rehabilitated buildings and staffing-based tax credits to tenants of such buildings. That credit “shall terminate effective Aug. 8, 2009,” the EDC said.
The full list of tax credits and their recipients is attached below.
“This report is not intended to provide an analysis as to the effectiveness of the tax credit programs,” noted R.I. Tax Administrator David M. Sullivan. “It is simply aimed at disclosing the amount of tax credits received by taxpayers.”
The efficacy of the credits will be addressed by the Department of Revenue in a separate report, due out next month. That document is expected to detail the full-time and part-time jobs created or retained by each recipient, and the employee benefits provided; the degree to which each recipient has met tax-credit requirements and goals for job creation or retention and employee benefits; and the full cost to the state of each tax-credit awarded.
Additional information is available from the R.I. Department of Revenue at www.dor.ri.gov.
