{"id":717,"date":"2011-09-13T16:10:18","date_gmt":"2011-09-13T21:10:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=717"},"modified":"2012-12-20T10:20:26","modified_gmt":"2012-12-20T16:20:26","slug":"a-20-million-question-is-an-insurance-company%e2%80%99s-%e2%80%98unique-arrangement%e2%80%99-a-tax-credit-and-rebate-loophole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2011\/09\/13\/a-20-million-question-is-an-insurance-company%e2%80%99s-%e2%80%98unique-arrangement%e2%80%99-a-tax-credit-and-rebate-loophole\/","title":{"rendered":"The $20M Question: Is an Insurance Company\u2019s \u2018Unique Arrangement\u2019 a Tax Credit and Rebate Loophole?"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the state\u2019s largest insurance companies may have used a loophole in the law to take about $20 million in job creation tax credits from two separate economic development programs, according to an analysis by The Oklahoman<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

David Gallagher \/ Flickr<\/p>\n

Farmers Insurance Co. Inc. is based in Los Angeles and one of the biggest insurance companies in Oklahoma.<\/p>\n<\/div>

Farmers Insurance Co. Inc., based in Los Angles, received $9.6 million in Quality Jobs rebate payments from 2002 to 2011, according to state tax records, reported Paul Monies, the paper\u2019s database editor.<\/p>

The company also claimed at least $8.8 million in home office tax credits against its insurance premium tax over the last 10 years, Monies wrote, citing data from the Oklahoma Insurance Department.<\/p>

The Oklahoma Quality Jobs Program Act<\/a> gives quarterly cash rebates for job creation and \u2014 according to the Department of Commerce’s annual incentive guide<\/a> \u2014 forbids participants from claiming both home office premium tax credits and Quality Jobs rebates, but the company was able to claim both by splitting its operations.<\/p>\n

Even though employees could be in the same office building, Farmers Insurance assigns their job functions to separate incentive programs.<\/p><\/blockquote>

The company told The Oklahoman<\/em> that it discussed the arrangement with Department of Commerce officials more than a decade ago, when the state was competing with other states for a Farmers Insurance regional office.<\/p>

Farmers Insurance is likely the only insurance company taking both the Quality Jobs rebates and the home office premium tax credits, Don Hackler, deputy general counsel for the Commerce Department, told the paper, noting that the annual incentives guide is a “CliffsNotes” summation of the law.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t take both incentives for the same activity, but since you have separate activities, you can take different incentives for each activity,\u201d Hackler said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the state\u2019s largest insurance companies may have used a loophole in the law to take about $20 million in job creation tax credits from two separate economic development programs, according to an analysis by The Oklahoman.Farmers Insurance Co. Inc., based in Los Angles, received $9.6 million in Quality Jobs rebate payments from 2002 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[492,15],"tags":[95,98,31,94],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":739,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717\/revisions\/739"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}