“To provide tax incentives that support local media.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section establishes a new general business tax credit (IRC §45BB) for eligible small businesses equal to 80% (first taxable year) or 50% (subsequent years) of qualified local media advertising expenses paid or incurred, capped at $5,000 (first year) or $2,500 (subsequent years). Eligible small businesses are those with fewer than 50 full-time employees on average (as defined under IRC §4980H(c)(2) for Affordable Care Act applicable large employer status); qualified expenses are for advertising (including sponsorships) in a local newspaper or on an FCC-licensed broadcast radio or television station serving a local community. A local newspaper is a print or digital publication with original local news content that primarily serves a regional or local community, whose publisher (≤750 employees, aggregation rules apply) employs at least one full-time local news journalist residing in the community, continuously meets these requirements for the year preceding enactment, and is not a specified nonprofit, political organization, or entity controlled by or substantially funded by such organizations. The credit terminates for amounts paid or incurred in taxable years ending after the 5-year period beginning on the date of enactment and applies to taxable years beginning after enactment. (Thus, no deduction is allowed for the credited expenses.)
This section establishes a new payroll tax credit under new section 3135 of the Internal Revenue Code for eligible local news journalist employers (i.e., those with substantially all gross receipts from publishing local newspapers, as defined in section 45BB(f)) equal to 50% (for the first four calendar quarters) or 30% thereafter of qualified wages paid to local news journalists (i.e., those providing at least 200 hours of service per quarter, as defined in section 45BB(f)(2)). The credit is limited to (1) no more than 1,500 local news journalists per employer per quarter, (2) $12,500 in wages per journalist per quarter, and (3) applicable employment taxes (i.e., Medicare taxes under section 3111(b) and equivalent railroad taxes under section 3221(a)), net of certain other credits; excess amounts are refundable. It includes aggregation rules for controlled groups (unless producing different publications), excludes governments, allows employers to elect out, denies double benefits with specified other credits, and provides related administrative relief (e.g., deposit penalty waivers and a five-year extended assessment period).