Report Title:

Tax Credit; Employee Drug Treatment

 

Description:

Provides a tax credit for employers who pay and provide a drug treatment insurance plan for their employees.

 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

193

TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2001

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

RELATING TO DRUG TREATMENT.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. Purpose. Substance abuse is one of the most pervasive plagues confronting Hawaii. Substance abuse costs our State in numerous ways, such as prison overcrowding, increased police and court workload, lost economic productivity, lost excise tax revenues and work days, and property damage and loss of life.

This Act is a small part of the overall approach, but it is just as important as any other. The purpose of this Act is to offer an economic incentive to the private sector to join in this battle. Approximately seventy per cent of substance and drug abusers are employed. Every lost employee day due to substance abuse only hurts a state economy that cannot afford it. Every person lost to substance abuse is a loss our community cannot afford.

SECTION 2. Chapter 235, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"§235- Tax credit; employee drug treatment plan. (a) There shall be allowed to each taxpayer subject to the tax imposed by this chapter an employee drug treatment plan income tax credit which shall be applied against the taxpayer's net individual or corporate tax liability, if any, for the taxable year in which the credit is properly claimed. The tax credit may be claimed by any business in the State that pays and provides its employees with a drug treatment insurance plan. The credit shall be equal to fifty per cent of the cost of the insurance coverage, up to a maximum of $        .

(b) If the tax credit under this section exceeds the taxpayer's income tax liability, the excess of credits over liability shall be refunded to the taxpayer; provided that no refunds or payment on account of the tax credits allowed by this section shall be made for amounts less than $1. All claims, including any amended claims, for tax credits under this section shall be filed on or before the end of the twelfth month following the close of the taxable year for which the credit may be claimed. Failure to comply with the foregoing provision shall constitute a waiver of the right to claim the credit.

(c) The director of taxation may:

(1) Prepare forms as may be necessary to claim a credit under this section;

(2) Require the taxpayer to furnish information to qualify for the credit and to ascertain the validity of the claim for credit; and

(3) Adopt rules pursuant to chapter 91 to effectuate this section."

SECTION 3. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval and apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2000.

INTRODUCED BY:

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