Newark Urban Enterprise Zone

General

1. When can a business owner obtain tax benefits in an Urban Enterprise Zone or Urban Enterprise Zone impacted business district?
When it is certified as a qualified business, within a designated zone, by the Urban Enterprise Zone Authority. Exemption certificates will then be issued by the Division of Taxation, effective on the date of certification.

2. What is an Urban Enterprise Zone?
A city which has suffered economic problems and meets certain other criteria may request that the Urban Enterprise Zone Authority designate part of the city, usually about 30%, as an Urban Enterprise Zone.

3. Where are Urban Enterprise Zones usually located?
Usually in the industrial and/or commercial portions of a city, within a continuous boundary. In the joint zone of Vineland-Millville the zone is comprised of parts of two adjoining cities, with the zone having a continuous boundary. The joint zone of Asbury Park-Long Branch has non-continuous boundaries.

4. What is an Urban Enterprise Zone-impacted business district?
It is an economically-distressed business district that has been negatively impacted by the presence of two or more adjacent Urban Enterprise Zones in which 50% less sales tax is collected.

5. What is the Urban Enterprise Zone Authority?
It is a nine member authority, established under N.J.S.A. 52:27H-60 et seq., consisting of the CEO/Secretary of the Commerce and Economic Growth Commission, and the Commissioner's of Community Affairs, Labor, and the State Treasurer or their designees; together with five public members.

6. How does the Authority designate zones?
Upon the enacting of legislation by the State Legislature providing the creation of additional Urban Enterprise Zones, the Authority, by reviewing applications of cities, may designate those municipalities that fulfill the required criteria. The decision is based upon the need of the city for economic development; the unemployment rate; the percentage of families on welfare; the potential benefits shown by the application; and similar factors.

7. How does the authority designate Urban Enterprise Zones-impacted business districts?
A municipality must demonstrate to the Authority that its business district is economically distressed and is being negatively impacted by the presence of two or more adjacent enterprise zones in which 50% less sales tax is collected. In making its decision of whether to designate a municipality as an Urban Enterprise Zone-impacted business district, the Authority will consider whether the district is located in a municipality which is between two municipalities each of which has an enterprise zone and whether the borders of the two enterprise zones of the adjacent municipalities are contiguous to the border of the applicant municipality.

8. When does a designated zone become effective?
When it is designated by the Authority, and has accepted the designation by municipal ordinance. There are no benefits for a business until the zone is effective, and the business has been certified.

9. How many zones have been established?
The Urban Enterprise Zone Program (UEZ) was enacted in 1983 with a duration of twenty years. It authorized the designation of ten zones by the New Jersey Urban Enterprise Zone Authority: Camden, Newark, Bridgeton, Trenton, Plainfield, Elizabeth, Jersey City, Kearny, Orange and Millville/Vineland (joint zone). In 1994 the legislation was amended and ten more zones were added to this successful economic development program. Of the ten new zones, six were predetermined: Paterson, Passaic, Perth Amboy, Phillipsburg, Lakewood, Asbury Park/Long Branch (joint zone). The four remaining zones were selected on a competitive basis. They are Carteret, Pleasantville, Union City and Mount Holly. The legislation was amended in 1996 to include seven additional zones. They were all predetermined and include East Orange, Guttenberg, Hillside, Irvington, North Bergen, Pemberton and West New York. The legislation was amended again in 2002 to include 3 more zones, creating a total of 30 zones. They include Bayonne City, Roselle Borough, and a joint zone consisting of North Wildwood City, Wildwood City, Wildwood Crest Borough, and West Wildwood Borough.

10. How does a business become certified as a "qualified business" in an Urban Enterprise Zone or in an Urban Enterprise Zone-impacted business district?
By making application to the local municipal zone coordinator on an Authority application form. The local coordinator verifies that the business is within the zone or district and forwards the application to the Authority at 20 West State Street, P.O. Box 820, Trenton, New Jersey 08625-0820 for review and approval.

11. What tests are used by the Authority to decide whether a business shall be certified in a zone or a district?
Generally, that the business will create new employment in the municipality containing the zone or district, and will not create unemployment elsewhere in the state (including that municipality).

12. What preliminary tests must all businesses meet?
The business must be engaged in the active conduct of a trade or business in a zone or district at the time the zone is designated an enterprise zone or the district is designated as an Urban Enterprise Zone-impacted district, or after the zone or district is designated become engaged in the active conduct of a trade or business in that zone or district and have at least 25% of its employees employed at a business location in the zone or district, meeting one or more employment tests.

13. What are the employment tests?
A new business formed in or moving into a zone or district must have at least 25% of its new full-time employees, hired during its first or second year in the program, meeting one or more of the following criteria:
(a) Residents within the zone, the district, within another zone or within a qualifying municipality
(b) Unemployed for at least six months prior to being hired and residing in New Jersey, or recipients of New Jersey public assistance programs for at least six months prior to being hired
(c) Determined to be low-income individuals pursuant to the Workforce Investment Act of 1998. Under an alternative, the Authority may certify a business if it agrees to meet the 25% criteria during its first two years of certification. If the Authority determines that an applicant is unable in good faith to meet the 25% requirement, the Authority may reduce the requirement below 25% for that business, conditioned upon the agreement of the business to implement and/or sponsor certain specified training and job programs for a period of at least five years.

14. Is there a corporation tax credit for a small business which is unable to increase its employment and which makes an investment in the zone, instead?
Yes. There is an alternate method by which a zone business may be qualified, even though it is unable to increase its full-time permanent employment, if the business has fewer than 50 employees and was in business in the zone at least one year prior to designation of the zone. This business may be certified for one year by entering into an agreement with the zone city to make an expenditure, approved by the Authority, which contributes substantially to the economic attractiveness of the zone. The expenditures must be at least $5,000 for a business with 10 or fewer employees, with an additional $500 per employee up to the maximum of 49. The corporation is entitled to an 8% investment credit against the Corporation Business Tax for the tax year in which the expenditure is made. The credit may be carried over (see question 26). Corporate tax benefits are unavailable to qualified businesses located within an Urban Enterprise Zone-impacted business district.

15. Are there any retroactive tax benefits for a qualified business after it is certified?
No. All benefits are effective only from the date of certification. Also, there are no benefits for a business unless it is currently a "qualified business." Renewal of qualified business status must be made annually.

16. What are the benefits in a zone?
Briefly, the right to buy taxable tangible personal property (except motor vehicles), and most services (except telecommunications services), without sales tax; credits against the Corporation Business Tax for certain businesses hiring certain new employees; and an award for certain new employees, based upon employment insurance tax paid. Also, qualified retail businesses may, on certification by the Division of Taxation, collect sales tax at half rate on most taxable sales of tangible personal property.

17. What are the benefits available to a qualified business within an Urban Enterprise Zone-impacted
business district?
The only benefit available to qualified business located within the Urban Enterprise Zoneimpacted business district is the entitlement to collect sales tax at half rate on most taxable sales of tangible personal property.

18. What are Unemployment Insurance Based Awards?
(Administered by the New Jersey Commerce and Economic Growth Commission in conjunction with the NJ Department of Labor) A qualified business in a zone may be eligible for an award based upon the amount of unemployment insurance tax it has paid for certain new employees. No qualified business with a deficit reserve ratio qualifies for this award as long as it maintains that ratio. A deficit reserve ratio results when the employer's unemployment charges exceed the employer contributions to the unemployment trust fund. The award applies only to those employees whose gross salaries are less than $4,500 per quarter and is calculated according to a specific schedule. Contact the Department of Labor at (609) 292-2327. The award is unavailable to businesses located within an Urban Enterprise Zone-impacted business district.

19. Are businesses ever denied recertification?
Yes. If a qualified business is unable to maintain the number of employees it had when it met the employment tests required for qualification, the business no longer meets the criteria for being a qualified business and the business loses its UEZ or UEZ-impacted business district benefits. The Local Coordinators in the zones or districts will answer questions about re-qualification.

20. When do the benefits available to Urban Enterprise Zone-impacted business districts terminate?
When the duration of one or more of the enterprise zones adjacent to the Urban Enterprise Zone-impacted business district expires but the Urban Enterprise Zone-impacted business district continues to be adjacent to one or more remaining enterprise zones, the Authority will review the designation of the Urban Enterprise Zone-impacted business district. If upon conducting a hearing, the Authority finds that the business district continues to be economically distressed and negatively impacted by the remaining adjacent enterprise zone, the Urban Enterprise Zone-impacted business district designation shall be continued. The designation of the Urban Enterprise Zone-impacted business district will terminate automatically when the duration of the last enterprise zone adjacent to the district ends.

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For additional information please contact us: info@newarkuez.org or (973) 424-4154