New California Competes Grant Program

Since 2013, when California eliminated its statewide enterprise zone tax credit and incentive programs, we have been following the evolution of the California Competes Tax Credit (“CCTC”) program, which seeks to award tax credits to companies locating to or expanding within California.  The program has had its issues, certainly. Not the least of which is that few companies have been able to take advantage of the program, either because they do not engage in the type of expansion necessary, or because they are not paying income tax due to excess net operating losses, tax credits (i.e.; Research and Development Credits) or other reasons.

For this fiscal year, the Governor has included in his budget a new grant program called the California Competes Grant Program (“CalCompetes Grant Program”), which promotes that it will allow more companies to qualify and utilize cash grant funds (as opposed to tax credits) in the name of expansion in the state. The goal of this new program is to make funds available to companies which could previously not qualify for the tax credit, but might be making the necessary investments and could benefit from the grant instead.

Read More