2003 House Bill 5341 ↩

Senate Roll Call 290: Passed

To exempt a "qualified start-up business" from paying property tax on real and personal property for five years. A "qualified start-up business" is defined as a firm that has fewer than 25 full-time equivalent employees, has annual sales of less than $1 million, has research and development expenses that make up at least 15-percent of its annual expenses, and is not publicly traded. This does not necessarily apply only to new firms, and the five year exemption is not necessarily the firm's first five years of operation. The personal property tax is a tax on the tools and equipment that businesses use to provide goods and services. It is assessed and levied in the same manner as regular property taxes on real estate.