Featured Business Program October 2024: Work Opportunity Tax Credit for Businesses
WOTC is a Federal tax credit incentive that employers may receive for hiring individuals from certain groups who have consistently faced barriers to employment. The groups that qualify include: 1) Qualified IV-A (“TANF”) recipient; 2) Qualified Veteran; 3) Qualified Ex-Felon; 4) Designated Community Resident; 5) Vocational Rehabilitation Referral; 6) Summer Youth Employee; 7) Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP or “food stamps”) recipient; 8) Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipient; 9) Long-term Family Assistance (Long-term TANF) recipient; and 10) Qualified Long-term Unemployment recipient. The main objective of this program is to enable the targeted groups to gradually move from economic dependency into self-sufficiency as they earn a steady income and become contributing taxpayers, while participating employers are compensated by being able to reduce their federal income tax liability.
Employers make the hiring decision, and there is no limit to the number of new hires who can qualify the employer for the tax savings. Employers must identify individuals as members of one of certain targeted groups before a job offer is made. The amount of the tax credit will be based on a percentage of qualified wages paid to the new employee for the first year of employment only (with the exception of the long term TANF – Temporary Assistance for Needy Families recipient). Both the percentage and the cap on qualifying wages vary based on which target group the new employee falls into. For more details on WOTC benefit amounts, visit: www.doleta.gov/business/incentives/opptax/.
There are forms that must be completed. Employers complete Page 1 of IRS Form 8850, Pre-Screening Notice and Certification Request for the Work Opportunity Tax Credit, by the date of the job offer; and then Page 2 of the form, after the individual is hired. This form is available at: www.irs.gov/form8850 or by calling 1-800-829-3676.
Another form, the ETA Form 9061, Individual Characteristics Form, is used if the new hire has not been given an ETA Form 9062; OR ETA Form 9062, Conditional Certification Form, if provided to the job seeker by a Participating Agency, an SWA, or a Vocational Rehabilitation Agency. Employers can obtain the ETA 9061/9062 at: www.doleta.gov/business/incentives/opptax/.
The IRS ETA Form 8850 which attests that the job seeker is a member of a target group is forwarded by the employer to the MassHire Department of Career Services (DCS) no later than the 28th day after the job seeker began work at the following address: Work Opportunity Tax Credit Unit, MassHire Department of Career Services, 100 Cambridge Street, Boston, MA 02114.
For Fiscal Year (FY) 2023, State workforce agencies (SWAs) received $18,485,000 to support the administration of WOTC, which includes the certification process and reporting data on a quarterly basis to DOL/ETA.
- In FY 2023, SWAs issued 1,982,858 certifications
- in FY 2022, 2,569,056 certifications
- in FY 2021, 2,081,474 certifications
- in FY 2020, 1,620,806 certifications
- in FY 2019, 2,068,417 certifications.
To view a WOTC fact sheet please visit: https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ETA/wotc/pdfs/WOTC-Fact-Sheet-2024.pdf, or contact your Career Center Business Services Representative.
