The Comptroller of Public Accounts proposes amendments to §9.1052 concerning forms, §9.1053 concerning entity requesting agreement to limit appraised value, and §9.1055 concerning comptroller application review and agreement to limit appraised value.

The amendments to §9.1052 propose changes to Form 50-296A, Application for Appraised Value Limitation on Qualified Property; Form 50-826, Texas Economic Development Act Agreement; and Form 50-825, Job Creation Compliance Report. Copies of these forms with proposed changes are available on the comptroller's website at https://comptroller.texas.gov/economy/local/ch313/forms.php.

Form 50-296A, Application for Appraised Value Limitation on Qualified Property, requires submission of a hard copy and an electronic copy of the completed form to the comptroller. To move toward paperless submissions, proposed Form 50-296A removes the requirement to submit a hard copy. As a part of this transition to only electronic submissions, §9.1053 is also modified accordingly. Specifically, the amendment to §9.1053 updates the language in subsection (a)(2) by incorporating the requirements in paragraphs (A) and (B) to submit a completed application and supporting documents but in an electronic format. In doing so, subsections (a)(2)(A) and (B) are no longer necessary and are, therefore, deleted.

Other changes are proposed to cleanup and clarify Form 50-296A. The instructions are updated as follows: "within seven days to the Comptroller of Public Accounts" is replaced with "within seven days to the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts"; "original hard copy of the completed application to the Comptroller, as indicated on page 9 of this application, separating each section of the documents in addition to an electronic copy." is replaced with "completed application to the Comptroller, separating each section of the documents."; "Comptroller rule" is replaced with "Comptroller's rule"; "project, issue" is replaced with "project and issue"; "and prepare an economic impact evaluation" is deleted and "complete)," is replaced with "complete by the Comptroller),". Additional cleanup changes proposed to the form include: question 5 of Section 1, which is no longer necessary, is deleted; "at time of" is replaced with "at the same time" in question 1 of Section 3; "List the" is deleted from questions 2 and 5 of Section 4; Section 5 is modified by deleting "Identify" from question 1, inserting "the most recently" to question 2a, and deleting "List the" from questions 2b and 2c; "(MM/DD/YYYY)" is replaced with "(YYYY)" in question 4 of Section 9; "Identify" is deleted from questions 1 and 2 of Section 10 and the first letter of "county" is capitalized in question 10; Section 12 is updated by replacing "RZ" with "reinvestment zone" in question 1c and formatting the note below question 1d; "question 1)" phrase is replaced with "statement 1)" and "question 2)" phrase is replaced with "statement 2)" in Section 13; Section 14 is revised by deleting "and TAC 9.1051(b)(1)" from question 3, replacing "TWC" with "Texas Workforce Commission" in question 4 and deleting the phrase "from the four quarterly periods for which data were available" from question 4; question 2 of Section 15 is modified by replacing "supplied by other than the Comptroller's Office" with "supplied by an entity other than the Comptroller's office."; and "Pages of the application..." sentence is deleted from the first row of the "Application Tab Order For Requested Attachments" table.

The proposed change to Form 50-826, Texas Economic Development Act Agreement, corrects a typographical error in Section 9.4A whereby the phrase "Section 7.2" is replaced with "Section 7.1." Another proposed change updates the date in the footer of every page.

A few changes are proposed to Form 50-825, Job Creation Compliance Report, which is a pdf form on the comptroller's website. These changes include: the year in the title of the form; new instructions to clarify who should complete the form and what qualifying job information should be reported if a report was submitted in the previous year; the form submission deadline; an update to the "Report Prepared by" question whereby both the preparer's name and the company's name are required; a new field requesting the preparer's phone and email address for any inquiries. Other changes to Form 50-825 are: question 1 is replaced with "Date application determined complete by Comptroller's Office" in Section 1; a field for Texas taxpayer identification number of the agreement holder becomes the new question 2 as the audit division uses this information in its review; the other questions are renumbered accordingly; the old question 6 relating to listing other applicants and describing their relationships is deleted as extraneous information; "employee" is replaced with "authorized representative" in question 2 of Section 2, to allow individuals with legal capacity to act on behalf of the company; question 3 under Section 2 is revised by adding "and relevant dates of amendment to agreements" to track the chain of project amendments; new questions 4 and 5 are added to Section 2 requesting the name of any third party or contractor staffing the project along with their authorized representative that can verify the jobs; and the note on social security numbers under question 2 of Section 2 is repeated below new question 5 as it applies to the authorize representative of the third party or contractor staffing.

The creation of qualifying jobs section of Form 50-825, (i.e. Section 3) is amended as follows: question 1 is updated with "(See Schedule C filed with the application)" to assist with answering the question; question 2 along with parts a, b and c are deleted as extraneous information and a new question 2 requesting the number of new qualifying jobs on the qualified property created in the year covered by the report is added; question 3 is reworded to request verification documentation for those relying on a job waiver; the word "two" is replaced with "2" in question 4a along with deleting the comma and correcting the misspelling of "designated"; questions 6 and 6a relating to the minimum requirements set out in Section 313.021(3) are deleted for clarification purposes; the questions thereafter are renumbered; renumbered question 6 is modified by replacing "from one area" with "in one area" for grammatical correctness and parts a and b are added to obtain and identifying the number of jobs transferred from facilities; renumbered question 7 is updated to reference the applicable statute and parts 7a and 7b are added to obtain and identify the number of replacement jobs; questions 9 and 9b are reworded for simplification purposes to obtain the annual wage committed to pay in the application; and statements relating to the applicable statutes on qualifying jobs and the comptroller's role are included on page 3 following renumbered question 9.

The table on page 4 of the Form 50-825 is amended for efficiency and clarification as follows: two columns labeled new and old are created under the "Job #" heading to easily identify old and new jobs; the "Employee Name" column is replaced with two columns labeled "Employee Name (of Agreement Holder) First Initial and last name only" column and "Employee Name (of Contractor) First initial and last name only" to distinguish the agreement holder and contractor employees; the first note under the table is replaced with instructions for first-time filers to complete the table; the second note is replaced with instructions for repeat filers to complete the table; the third note is replaced with "See TAC §9.1051(21) for the definition of average weekly wage for manufacturing" and a fourth note is inserted providing "The agreement holder is responsible for providing sufficient documentation that will verify each job meets qualifying jobs requirements." The certification statement is cleaned up and modernized by replacing it with "After this form 50-825 (including any other requested information) is completed it must be reviewed and certified by the agreement holder, or a designee authorized to act on behalf of the agreement holder. By signing below, I certify under penalty of perjury that I am authorized to execute this instrument and the information provided herein is true and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief." The statement below the signature block is updated to eliminate the hard copy submission requirement. The Excel spreadsheet version of the table reflects these proposed changes along with correcting the misspelling of compliance in the title.

One of the amendments to §9.1055 updates the language in subsection (b)(3) to include the requirement in paragraph (A) and to insert "the Texas Education Agency" as another notice recipient in lieu of sending it a copy of the completed application. In this regard, subsections (b)(3)(A) and (B) are deleted. Another amendment modifies subsection (c)(1)(A) to remove "by certified mail return receipt requested," which provides the comptroller with the flexibility to send determinations on ineligible properties by quicker means.

Tom Currah, Chief Revenue Estimator, has determined that during the first five years that the proposal is in effect, the rule: will not create or eliminate a government program; will not require the creation or elimination of employee positions; will not require an increase or decrease in future legislative appropriations to the agency; will not require an increase or decrease in fees paid to the agency; will not increase or decrease the number of individuals subject to the rules' applicability; and will not positively or adversely affect this state's economy.

Mr. Currah also has determined that the proposed amendments would have no significant fiscal impact on the state government, units of local government, or individuals. The proposed amendments would benefit the public by improving the administration of local property valuation and taxation. There would be no anticipated significant economic cost to the public. The proposed amendments would have no significant fiscal impact on small businesses or rural communities.

Comments on the amendments may be submitted to John Villarreal, Manager, Data Analysis and Transparency Division, Comptroller of Public Accounts, at P.O. Box 13528, Austin, Texas 78711. Comments must be received no later than 30 days from the date of publication of the proposal in the Texas Register.

The amendments are proposed under Tax Code, §313.031, which authorizes the comptroller to adopt rules necessary for the implementation and administration of Tax Code, Chapter 313.

The amendments implement Tax Code, Chapter 313.