SS/SB 802 - This act establishes the "Missouri Rural Access to Capital Act", which provides a tax credit for certain investments made in businesses located in rural areas in this state.

This act allows investors to make capital investments in a rural fund, as defined in the act. Such investors shall be allowed a tax credit for a period of six years beginning with the year the investor made a capital investment. The tax credit shall be equal to a percentage of the capital investment. The percentage shall be zero for the first two years, and fifteen percent for the subsequent four years. Tax credits issued under the act shall not be refundable, but may be carried forward to any of the five subsequent tax years, as described in the act. No more than $16 million dollars in tax credits shall be authorized in a given calendar year.

A rural fund wishing to accept investments as capital investments shall apply to the Department of Economic Development. The application shall include the amount of capital investment requested, a copy of the applicant's license as a rural business or small business investment company, evidence that the applicant has made at least $100 million in investments in nonpublic companies located in counties throughout the United States with a population less than fifty thousand, evidence that the applicant has made at least $30 million in investments in nonpublic companies located in Missouri, and a business plan that includes a revenue impact statement projecting state and local tax revenue to be generated by the applicant's proposed qualified investments, as described in the act. The rural fund shall also submit a nonrefundable application fee of $5,000.

The Department shall grant or deny an application within sixty days of receipt. The Department shall deny an application if such application is incomplete or insufficient, if the revenue impact assessment does not demonstrate that the business plan will result in a positive economic impact on the state over a ten year period, or if the Department has already approved the maximum amount of capital investment authority.

Rural funds shall use capital investments made by investors to make qualified investments, as defined in the act, in eligible businesses. An eligible business is a business that, at the time of the qualified investment, has fewer than two hundred fifty employees, has its principal business operations in the state, is not an alien, foreign entity, or foreign government, and is engaged in certain industries, as described in the act.

The Department may recapture tax credits if the rural fund does not invest sixty percent of its capital investment authority in qualified investments within two years of the date of the capital investment, and one hundred percent of its capital investment authority within three years, if the rural fund fails to maintain qualified investments equal to ninety percent of its capital investment authority in years three through six, as described in the act, if prior to exiting the program or thirty days after the sixth year, the rural fund makes a distribution or payment that results in the fund having less than one hundred percent of its capital investment authority invested in qualified investments, or if the rural fund violates provisions of the act.

Rural funds shall submit annual reports to the Department, including the name and location of each eligible business receiving a qualified investment, the total number of new jobs, maintained jobs, new payroll, maintained payroll, new revenue, and maintained revenue by each eligible business receiving a qualified investment, a revenue impact assessment projecting state and local tax revenue generated and projected to be generated, and any other information required by the Department, as described in the act.

At any time after the sixth anniversary of the capital investment, a rural fund may apply to the Department to exit the program. The Department shall respond to such application within fifteen days. At the time a rural fund exits the program, it shall be required to make a distribution to the state, not to exceed ten percent of the amount of tax credits received, if the amount of state and local tax benefits generated by the rural fund's qualified investments are less than the amount of tax credits distributed to the rural fund.

These provisions shall sunset on August 28, 2030, unless reauthorized by the General Assembly. (Sections 620.3500 to 620.3530)

This act is identical to provisions in SCS/HB 2170 (2024), HCS/SS/SCS/SB 92 (2023), as amended, and SS#3/HCS/HB 268 (2023), as amended, and is substantially similar to HCS/HB 959 (2023), 675 (2022), HB 1885 (2022), SCS/SB 465 (2021), HB 1361 (2021), SB 724 (2020), SCS/SB 477 (2019), HB 1230 (2019), and HB 1236 (2019), and to provisions in HCS/SS/SCS/SB 92 (2023), SB 644 (2022), SB 1091 (2022), SCS/SB 750 (2022), and SS/SCS/HB 948 (2021).

JOSH NORBERG