§ 44-48.1-1 - Tax expenditure reporting.
SECTION 44-48.1-1
§ 44-48.1-1 Tax expenditure reporting.– (a) On or before the second Tuesday in January of each even numbered yearbeginning in 2004, the chief of the office of revenue analysis, shall deliver atax expenditure report to the general assembly. Each report will provide theminimum information for one hundred percent (100%) of tax expenditures ineffect on January 1 of the calendar year preceding the report's publication.
(b) For the purposes of this section, a "tax expenditure" isany tax credit, deduction, exemption, exclusion, credit preferential tax rate,tax abatement, and tax deferral that provides preferential treatment toselected taxpayers, whether directly through Rhode Island general laws orconstitutional provisions or indirectly through adoption of other tax codes.
(c) The information included for each tax expenditure shallinclude, but shall not be limited to:
(1) The legal reference of the expenditures, includinginformation whether the expenditure is required as a result of federal or stateconstitutional, judicial, or statutory mandate.
(2) Amount of revenues forgone or an estimate, if the actualamount cannot be determined, for the calendar year immediately preceding thepublication of the report. The report shall also include an estimate of revenueforgone for the calendar year in which the report is published and the yearfollowing the report's publication. The tax administrator shall develop anindex of the reliability of each estimate using five (5) levels with level onebeing most reliable. Where actual tax returns are the source of the estimate,the estimate should be assigned reliability level one. Where no reliable dataexists for the estimate, the estimate should be assigned reliability level five(5). The reliability level shall be reported for the estimate of the revenuesforgone.
(3) To the extent allowable by law, identification of thebeneficiaries of the exemption by number, income, class and industry.
(4) A comparison of the tax expenditure to the tax systems ofthe other New England states, with emphasis on Massachusetts and Connecticut.
(5) The data source(s) and analysis methodology.
(6) To the extent allowable by law, identification of similartaxpayers or industries that do not enjoy the exemption.
(d) Each report shall include a section containingrecommendations for improving the effectiveness of the report as a tax policytool. This section shall identify the resources required to implement theserecommendations and shall also contain an estimate of the costs associated withsuch recommendations.
(e) On or before the second Tuesday in January 2004, thechief of the office of revenue analysis shall make available to the generalassembly a plan to improve Rhode Island's tax expenditure reporting effort. Theplan shall include measurable criteria to evaluate improvements in thereliability of tax expenditure item estimates and the identification ofbeneficiaries of each tax expenditure by number, income, class and industry.The plan shall also include cost estimates of additional resources necessary toimplement the plan, and may include any other information that the taxadministrator deems appropriate for inclusion in said plan.