White County’s low-tax and
pro-business environment offers significant long- and short-term
operational advantages to new and expanding businesses in our community. White
County and other local agencies will work with your company to aggressively
package the most beneficial statutory and negotiated tax, financing, development
and training incentives to help you locate or expand your business enterprise in
our community.
Taxes
White County consistently has below state average tax millage in Georgia. The
combined (county + schools) millage rate is comparatively lower than the state
average. Through fiscally conservative and effective local leadership, White
County is committed to low taxes while maintaining high levels of services to
our citizens and businesses.
2009 (County, State and School) – 24.429
For additional information on tax rates and comparisons as well as other County
services information, please visit the
White County Government website. For additional information on individual
properties and parcels including maps and aerial information, please visit the
Tax
Assessor's website.
Single Factor Apportionment
Georgia’s new formula for calculating corporate income tax significantly reduces
the effective rate of taxation of Georgia-based manufacturing, sales, and
service companies with substantial sales to customers outside Georgia.
Georgia’s six percent corporate income tax rate applies only to the portion of
income that is earned in Georgia.
Since 2008, companies operating in Georgia use a "Single Factor Gross Receipts"
apportionment formula. This new formula substantially reduces Georgia income tax
for companies that are based in the state but deliver a large portion of
products or services to customers outside Georgia. Under the new law, Gross
Receipts, or sales in Georgia, will be the only factor used to determine the
amount of a company’s income that is subject to Georgia income tax.
Georgia is the first southeastern state to adopt single-factor apportionment for
state income taxes. In addition, Georgia’s broad definition of what sales
qualify as out-of-state means that tax savings in Georgia will likely exceed
those of future states to adopt single-factor apportionment.
Incentives
In addition to the many locational and environmental advantages to doing
business in White County, we offer attractive and highly competitive incentives
to newly-located and expanding companies. Our incentives are designed and
negotiated to both ensure our competitiveness for your project and also to
ensure that your company has every competitive advantage during start up and
continuing through long- term operations.
State Financial Incentives
- Jobs Tax Credits: provides $1,750/job created each year for five consecutive years
- Existing Industry JTC Bonus: one-time additional $500 credit/new job added between 2006-2011
- Quality Jobs Tax Credit: provides $2,500-$5,000 per job with above-average wages for five years
- Investment Tax Credits: provides tax credits equal to 1-3% of qualified capital investment
- Optional Investment Tax Credit: a credit equal to 6-10% of capital investment used in one year
- Port Tax Credit Bonus: increases Jobs or Investment credits if port activity is increased by 10%
- Mega Project Tax Credit: $5,250 credit for project with 1,800+ jobs or $450+ million investment
- Retraining Tax Credit: credit up to $500/yr per employee for direct investment in training
- Child Care Tax Credit: credit of 75-100% of employer-sponsored child care for employees
- Small Business Tax Relief: provides write off up to $102,000 for investments less than $410,000
- R&D Tax Credit: credit up to 10% of increased qualified R&D expense over gross receipts
- Sales & Use Tax Exemption: on equipment and electricity used directly in manufacturing
State Technical and Training Incentives
- QuickStart: Georgia’s nationally acclaimed employee training program that provides customized training for new employees in skill-based jobs at no cost to qualifying companies. The training program and materials are given to the company for its future use. QuickStart provides training space, instructors and all materials related to the company’s customized program, potentially saving companies hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars in training costs.
- Facilitech: Georgia Institute of Technology offers world-class IT, engineering and other services to help companies with issues related to process productivity, quality and international standards, energy and environmental management, lean enterprise transformation, trade adjustment assistance, new product design and development, and information technology strategies.
- Centers of Innovation: Georgia provides several Centers across the state
that support different
strategic industry sectors including manufacturing, aerospace, agriculture and logistics. Georgia
companies can utilize university-sponsored research, public and private sector talent and other state and private sector resources for their innovation and growth strategies needs. - Hope Grant: allows any Georgian to complete a degree or certificate
program through the State
Technical Colleges, which allows Georgia companies to take advantage of additional training
opportunities for their employees and business.
Georgia Work Ready - What Does Georgia Work Ready Mean for Business?
To successfully compete in a global economy, companies must have access to
long-term, qualified labor pools. Georgia Work Ready was designed to build
the nation's best workforce and ensure Georgia companies have the talent
they need to stay ahead of the competition.
Benefits of Work Ready
Georgia Work Ready can help you hire the best people and boost your bottom
line. It's available at no cost for companies meeting minimum hiring
requirements and is easy to access through the state's network of technical
colleges. Georgia companies can implement Work Ready two ways - through job
profiling and Work Ready Certificates. Work Ready job profiles identify the
job tasks and skill levels necessary to be successful in any job. Companies
match those profiles to employees' Work Ready Certificates - which measure
core skills - to ensure the right person is placed in the right job every
time. Companies implementing Work Ready make an investment of their
employees' time to develop strong job profiles.
This initial investment can reap great rewards for years to come including:
- Improved hiring procedures
- Reduced turnover
- Reduced training costs
- Increased productivity and profitability
- ;High employee morale
In fact, a recent survey among companies that are using Work Ready found
that 90 percent would recommend the initiative to others and 78 percent said
that Work Ready helps them "find higher quality employees."
White County Financial Incentives
• Industrial Revenue Bond Financing: The White County Development Authority
(WCDA) is statutorily enabled to issue IRBs for project-related costs of
land, facilities and machinery & equipment. Interest rates fluctuate but are
generally well-below commercial rates and terms are determined by the
company and its investment banker.
• Tax Abatements: This incentive may be available through the Development
Authority if a company chooses to finance all or part of its project with
IRBs. Pursuant to an IRB “bond-for-title” financing structure, title to
project property is held by WCDA and a payment in-lieu-of tax (PILOT)
schedule is agreed upon. Under this arrangement, WCDA issues a bond that is
underwritten by an investment bank that provides the capital. WCDA holds
title to and leases the financed assets to the company with the lease
payments being equal to the debt service of the note. WCDA and the company
may then negotiate an abatement and corresponding PILOT payment in lieu of
normal ad valorem taxes. All ad valorem tax abatements are negotiated on an
individual basis to ensure our competitiveness for your project.
• Site Improvements: WCDA may provide some improvement to a White County
property for the
location of a new business enterprise. Several sites in the Telford
Industrial Park are already prepared to pad-ready status and are served with
water, sewer, road, power and telecommunications infrastructure.
• Infrastructure Improvements: As may be required depending on the location
and scope of a project and determined on a case-by-case basis, WCDA, through
local, state and federal resources, may provide infrastructure improvements
such as road, water or sewer service to a site.
• Permitting: In close cooperation with City and County officials, White
County will expedite local
permitting processes and may seek to reduce or waive fees on behalf of a
prospective business.
• Other Financing: The White County Development Authority has access to a
host of below-market, publicly-sourced and flexible financing programs that
may be used by a new or expanding business for real and personal property
costs. Such financing may be used independently or in conjunction with IRB
financing or commercial lending. WCDA will aggressively seek to structure
financing that is most advantageous to your company.
The White County Development Authority’s partnerships with the Habersham EMC
and Georgia Power gives us a competitive advantage in Georgia by making
available additional low-cost financing and grant/loan packages to companies
interested in bringing a business to White County, funds that are not
accessible to businesses in other regions.
Long-Term Incentives for locating in White County
- Low cost of living
- Low transportation costs
- Excellent location, within two hour’s drive of Atlanta, GA, and Greenville, SC
- Well-trained and disciplined work force
- Low taxes
- Excellent quality of life