New Legislation Improves Options for San Francisco Business Tax Credits
On June 24th the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed legislation making it easier for businesses to qualify for the local Enterprise Zone Payroll Tax Credit. The newly passed ordinances make the local program more consistent with the California Enterprise Zone Program, extending eligibility for the Payroll Tax Credit to thousands of additional San Francisco businesses, jobs, and workers, effective immediately.
The local Enterprise Zone Payroll Tax Credit was created to encourage businesses in specified geographic areas to hire and retain workers from targeted groups. Administered by the Office of the Treasurer and Tax Collector, the tax credit offsets the payroll tax a business would have paid by hiring new qualified employees and can be claimed over a period of ten years. Changes to the program are summarized below:
• Previously limited to new hires in newly created jobs, the San Francisco Enterprise Zone Payroll Tax Credit can now apply to any new hires, if the business and worker meet other eligibility criteria.
• The geographic boundaries of San Francisco’s Enterprise Zone were expanded and now include Chinatown, South of Market, Mission Bay, Embarcadero, Potrero Hill, Tenderloin, Civic Center, Western Addition, Japantown, Financial District, Bayview, Hunters Point and Parts of Visitacion Valley. view a map of the new zone
• Eligibility criteria for workers have been expanded consistent with the California Enterprise Zone Program, excepting the state provision regarding an employee’s residence.
• San Francisco’s program requires that eligible workers be residents of the City.
For more information about whether your business qualifies, and for help understanding and processing hiring tax credits, please contact Paige Buck at SF Works at (415) 217-5182 or pbuck@sfworks.org.
2008 Businesses and Avocates for Small Business.
Each year the San Francisco Small Business Network Presents Awards for Businesses and Avocates for Small Business. Nominees must own and operate a small business in San Francisco and are evaluated on:
Staying power (history as an established business), growth in employees, increases in sales and/or unit volume, innovativeness of product or service, and community service.
View a short video for each of the Awardees, the 2008 Winners are:
Small Business Award
(25 or fewer employees)
Bibby Gignilliat
Parties that Cook
Small Business Award
(25 or fewer employees)
Peggy Hughes
Peggy Hughes Associates
Certified Green Business Award
Clare Munn
tcg: The Communication Group
Small Business Award
(25 or more employees)
Rick Karp
Cole Hardware
Small Business Advocate of the Year, Individual
Jordanna Thigpen
Small Business Advocate, Organization
Women's Initiative for
Self Employment (WISE)
About The SBN: By enhancing the City’s small business climate, the SBN believes economic, social and cultural health of the city and the community at-large will benefit.
For more than twenty years, The San Francisco Small Business Network (SBN) has served as a strong, clear, and unified voice of the small business community in San Francisco.
Its mission is to strengthen and unify the voice of the Small Business Community in San Francisco. With a growing membership of 17 business organizations, we represent more than 19,000 small businesses in San Francisco currently. For more information about the SBN or any of its programs, please call us at 415-731-2859, or visit www.sfsbn.org.
