General Business Credits - FAQ

For detailed listing of available incentives and credits, please see the tax booklets.

Usually the benefits are passed through to the shareholders or partners.

Please read IT-WH Electronic Request through the Georgia Tax Center.

Yes, the law limits the amount of credit which may be claimed against withholding by not allowing the Port Traffic Credit or Joint Development Authority credit amounts. If the company is claiming Port Traffic or Joint Development Authority amounts in addition to the Job Tax withholding credit, these amounts may only be applied against income tax liability. NOTE: In the case of a flow-through entity which makes an irrevocable election to claim the withholding credit, the amounts which may not be applied to withholding will be allowed to flow-through since they may not be applied against withholding.

Yes. A taxpayer may apply the 50% limitation of one credit and the 50% limitation of another credit to offset up to 100% of the income tax liability. Please note, however, that some credits have certain requirements when used in this manner and may not allow for 100% offset of liability (i.e. research).

The investment tax credit requires an application process, which must be approved before the credit can be claimed on the tax return. The regulation requires that the application be filed within 30 days of the completion of the project. For most taxpayers this will be within 30 days of the close of the tax year in which the project was completed. Applicants should allow a minimum of 60 days for the application to be processed. NOTE: Applications filed after the 30-day period must petition the Commissioner for approval to file the application late.

The application, which should be signed and dated by an officer of the corporation; a descriptive narrative of the project; a spreadsheet detailing the assets to be claimed with a description of the asset, an explanation of how the asset fits into the manufacturing process, the date placed into service and the purchase price of the asset; and, if the application is being filed by a consultant on behalf of a taxpayer, a properly executed Power of Attorney allowing any questions or correspondence to go through the consultant (without a POA, any questions or correspondence will go through the taxpayer at the address / phone number provided on the application).

Only real and personal property qualifies for the investment tax credit.

The port traffic credit is claimed on the form for the tax credit which it is being claimed in conjunction with or in lieu of (i.e. job tax credit, investment tax credit, or optional investment tax credit). All requirements of the original credit must be met before claiming the port traffic credit. A statement must also be attached to the Georgia return claiming the port increase which reflects the base year traffic and the prior year traffic to substantiate the credit, otherwise the credit will not be allowed. For job tax credit, the port traffic increase must be established in the year of eligibility, with sustained increase shown for subsequent years.

In order to qualify for the Georgia low-income housing credit, the qualified Georgia project must be eligible for the federal housing credit, as defined in Section 42 of the IRC of 1986.

For consistency with IRS Regulations, a partnership K-1(if claiming the credit as a flow through from a partnership), the associated Federal Form 8609 tax credit certificate and a schedule that includes each property for which a credit is claimed with a building-by-building allocation should be submitted with the tax return. See Form IT-HC.

For more information see Tax Credit Summaries.