By Timothy Boone
A project is under way to teach as many as
5,000 accountants, bookkeepers, attorneys and Realtors about access to
nearly $10 billion in federal tax credits. "We want to train an army,"
says Don Mains, chairman of Louisiana Tax Incentives. Mains says the
goal of the project is to let 120,000 state businesses know about the
$8.6 billion in GO Zone and the $1.1 billion in Renewal Community
Program incentives. The incentives, which go to the poorest parishes in
the state and the areas hardest hit by hurricanes Katrina and Rita,
include everything from wage credits to zero capital gains taxes on
shares of company stock. The plan is to inform thousands of investors
and financial professionals, so they can spread the word to businesses
of all sizes across the state. "This is an idea of using the tax system
for economic development," he says. GO Zone incentives expire in 2010,
so Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Mike Olivier wants to make
sure that all the money is used, Mains says. The first training
sessions for the programs are scheduled to start in late November and
run through the end of the year. Mains says the IRS and Louisiana
Public Broadcasting are working together to develop training videos and
the mobile classroom from LSU's Louisiana Business and Technology
Center will also be drafted into service to get the news out. "This
could mean hundreds of millions of dollars for different parts of the
state," Mains says.