The Work Opportunity Tax Credit is a tax credit available to employers who hire employees from certain targeted groups. Those targeted groups include veterans, people from a household receiving benefits such as food stamps, and ex-felons, among others. See the instructions to Form 8850 for more details.
The amount of credit varies based on the targeted group, hours worked, and wages paid.
The process of claiming the credit is arduous. You start by applying for a certification from your state workforce agency. In Iowa, that’s Iowa Workforce Development.
It’s been a couple of years since I’ve had a client apply for the credit. Back then, Iowa Workforce Development was hopelessly behind on processing credit applications. It took my client something like 15 months to receive the certification.
I’ve been told IWD has streamlined the process to make approvals go faster.
For more tax terms, check out the Glossary page on this website.
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