Two bills passed the Texas House today and are headed to the Senate: HB7 by Button and HB1195 by Geren. The Coalition of Chambers communicated with all our members of the legislature yesterday asking for their vote for these two bills.
HB7 by Angie Chen Button (R-Garland) will dramatically reduce the impact of unemployment payments made because of the COVID shutdowns on the taxes to be paid next year by employers. The way the tax rate is calculated is based on employer experience, so those that churn through employees creating more unemployment benefits to be paid pay more than other companies. During the pandemic shutdown much of the unemployment benefits paid could not be charged to an individual employer. About 50% of these uncharged benefits figure in the calculation of the tax rate. This bill slows down the increase.
HB1195 by Charlie Geren (R-Fort Worth) impacts companies large enough to pay franchise tax. This bill prevents the federal loan forgiveness of PPP loans from being counted as income for the franchise tax.
Senator Jane Nelson (R-Flower Mound) has introduced SB1182 which is an exact duplicate of Button’s HB7. The Nelson bill has been assigned to the Natural Resources and Economic Development Committee, but as of now is not scheduled for a hearing. Senator Kelly Hancock R-North Richland Hills) has introduced SB372 which is an exact duplicate of Geren’s HB1195. It has been assigned to the Senate Finance Committee.
The essence of these two bills are expected to be on the Governor’s desk for signature.