In very quick order the House passed this morning and the Senate passed H.R 2029, the Omnibus appropriations and tax extenders bill, and sent the bill to the President for his signature.
The President has said he will sign the bill. The two pieces of the bill addressing tax extenders provisions and appropriations were negotiated together. Links to the text are available as shown by the House Rules Committee at
http://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20151214/CPRT-114-HPRT-RU00-SAHR2029-AMNT1final.pdf
http://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20151214/121515.250_xml.pdf
The bill that contains the WOTC extension language is found at http://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20151214/121515.250_xml.pdf as part of the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015. See Section 142 on pages 38 and 39.
The Work Opportunity Tax Credit extension included in the package is a five year extension through December 31, 2019.
The language adds long-term unemployed as qualifying for WOTC employer tax credit beginning after December 31, 2015.
The definition of qualified long term unemployment recipient is provided as
(15) QUALIFIED LONG-TERM UNEMPLOYMENT RECIPIENT.—The term ‘qualified long-term unemployment recipient’ means any individual who is
certified by the designated local agency as being in a period of unemployment which—
(A) is not less than 27 consecutive weeks, and
(B) includes a period in which the individual was receiving unemployment compensation under State or Federal law.
The longer term extension will enable employers and states to better plan for certification and use of WOTC as an additional tool to reduce the cost of hiring for employers and to assist unemployed workers in obtaining employment after longer periods of unemployment.
UWC supported WOTC and worked with the WOTC coalition in support of this provision of the larger tax extenders bill.
