Employer Services
Empowerment
Zone (EZ)
Knoxville, TN was
designated as a Round II Empowerment Zone (EZ) in 1999 by
the federal government. With the designation came the promise
of $100 million over a 10-year period to stimulate economic
development activity in a 16 square mile area that encompasses
the “Heart of Knoxville. To date, $27 million EZ dollars
have been appropriated for starting new businesses, creating
jobs, and training employees. The EZ is an area in Knoxville
that qualified for special federal dollars to revitalize the
community because of its level of poverty, poor housing conditions,
high unemployment and low education levels.
The Department
of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) of the federal government
funds the program, the City of Knoxville is the fiscal agent
and the Partnership for Neighborhood Improvement (PNI) makes
decisions on how the money is spent with input from Zone Advisory
Councils (ZAC’s) that represent EZ neighborhoods. For
additional information about the EZ you may visit www.knoxvilleempowermentzone.org.
HUD’s initiatives
for Empowerment Zones (EZs), offers a number of tax
incentives to businesses and workers to help overcome
the problems mentioned above. Some of the tax incentives include
various wage credits: Empowerment Zone Employment Credit (EZ
Wage Credit); Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC); and Welfare
to Work Credit (WtW Credit). Wage credits reduce the amount
of Federal income tax that a business has to pay. Once a business
has determined its income, it subtracts its business and other
allowable deductions to arrive at its taxable income. The
amount of taxes owed is then calculated against the taxable
income. A tax credit is a direct subtraction from the amount
of taxes owed. For additional information on the tax incentives
you may contact the Heart of Knoxville Career and Resource
Center or the empowerment zone website shown above.
