Section 520.900  Definitions

The following definitions are applicable to Subpart I.

"Act" means Sections 9-221, 9-222 and 9-222.1 of the Public Utilities Act [220 ILCS 5/9-221, 9-222 and 9-222.1].

"Department" means the Department of Commerce and Community Affairs.

"Eligible investment" means:

Investments in qualified property that are placed in service in an Enterprise Zone or by a designated High Impact Business in Illinois. Qualified properties are statutorily defined in Section 201(f) and (h) of the Illinois Income Tax Act [35 ILCS 5/201(f) and (h)]; or

Noncapital/nonroutine investments, and associated service costs (direct labor or contractual fees), placed in service in an Enterprise Zone and made for the improvement or renovation of qualified properties.  These activities are undertaken for the purpose of improving productive capacity, efficiency, product quality, or competitive position.  The investments cannot be repetitious, commonplace, or associated with regular maintenance expenditures, and would include, for example, rebuilt cast house furnaces, rebuilt soaking furnaces, a rebuilt hot line control system, a restructured plant layout, and installed equipment to rebuild a logeman baler. Noncapital/nonroutine investments are those that do not qualify for the investment tax credit pursuant to Section 201(f) of the Illinois Income Tax Act.

Businesses utilizing this definition must provide detailed information regarding the purpose, scope, justification, and benefits of these noncapital/nonroutine investments, including defined project start and completion target dates, and a level of expenditures of at least $40,000.

"Foreign Trade Zone" or "Foreign Trade Sub-Zone" means a geographic area designated by the federal government under the Foreign Trade Zone Act of 1934, as amended (19 USCA 81(a)) or rules promulgated under that Act (15 CFR 400 (1986)).

"Full-time employee" means a person, employed by the taxpayer or any wholly-owned subsidiary of the taxpayer, who works a minimum of 35 hours per week for 52 weeks for a minimum total of 1,820 hours per year.  Vacations, paid holidays, and sick time are included in this computation.  Overtime is not considered a part of regular hours.

"Full-time equivalent job" means the number of employees required to equal one full-time employee. For purposes of this definition, employee means a person who works a minimum of 35 hours per week for a minimum of 13 consecutive weeks to be counted toward full-time equivalency.

"High Impact Business" means a business that designated as a High Impact Business by the Department pursuant to the provisions of Section 5.5 of the Illinois Enterprise Zone Act [20 ILCS 655/5.5] and 14 Ill. Adm. Code 520.600.

"Job creation" means at least 200 full-time equivalent employees have been hired over the number of full-time equivalent employees that were employed by the applicant as of January 1, 1986, or the date the Enterprise Zone was certified, whichever is later.  Job titles being filled or refilled as a result of strikes or layoffs or replacement workers to replace company locked out employees cannot be counted as job creation.  A majority of the "jobs created" must be made in the Enterprise Zone in which the eligible investment is made.

"Job retention" means that at least 1,000 full-time employees will remain employed in Illinois as a direct result of the eligible investment, and that the employees would have lost their jobs had the investment not been made.  A majority of the "jobs retained" must be in the Enterprise Zone in which the eligible investment was made.

"Minimum investment" means the amount of eligible investment that must be made to qualify for the exemption. Under the job creation criteria, the minimum eligible investment that must be made in an Enterprise Zone is $5 million.  Under the job retention criteria the minimum eligible investment that must be made in an Enterprise Zone is $20 million.

"Placed in service" means the state or condition of readiness and availability for a specifically assigned function.

(Source:  Amended at 27 Ill. Reg. 3282, effective February 14, 2003)