New Reporting Law for Sales Tax Rebate Agreements

New Reporting Law for Sales Tax Rebate Agreements

  Wednesday, August 22, 2012    Julie Tappendorf

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House Bill 3859 was recently signed by the Illinois Governor as P.A. 97-0976.  The new law requires counties and municipalities to file reports with the Department of Revenue regarding tax-rebate agreements within 30 days after execution of a sales tax rebate or sharing agreement, or within 90 days after the effective date of the new law for agreements entered into prior to the new law.  The report must be submitted electronically, on the DOR form, and must contain the following information:

1. the names of the municipality and business; 
2. the location or locations of the business within the municipality; 
3. additional locations of the business in Illinois not identified above, if applicable;
4. the terms of the agreement, including (i) how the rebate will be determined each year, (ii) the duration of the agreement, and (iii) the name of any business who is not a party to the agreement but who directly or indirectly receives a share, refund, or rebate of the retailers' sales tax; and 
5. a copy of the sales tax rebate agreement. 

The Department and the municipality are required to redact the sales figures, the amount of sales tax collected, and the amount of sales tax rebated prior to disclosure of information.  The law also amends the Freedom of Information Act to recognize an exemption for this redacted information. 

The new law takes effect on January 1, 2013.

Post Authored by Julie Tappendorf, Ancel Glink.