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New Business Incentives FAQs

1. What are the statutory reporting requirements for the Zone Administrators?

Per 20 ILCS 655/8.2(b), each zone administrator shall collect and aggregate the following information: (1) the estimated cost of each building project, broken down into labor and materials; and (2) within 60 days after the end of the project, the actual cost of each building project, broken down into labor and materials.

2. What new information is required of a Zone administrator to adequately comply with the statutes?

When adding a new project to the reporting portal, the Zone Administrator will need to provide the following:

  • The legal business name, mailing address, business FEIN, business contact email address,
  • the project name and project location address, and
  • the project cost estimates, broken down into labor and materials.

For existing projects that expired in 2017 or later, the Zone administrator will need to provide the following:

  • The Business name, business FEIN (federal employer identification number) and business contact email address;
  • the project cost estimates, broken down into labor and materials; and
  • for those projects which have completed in 2017 or later: the project completion date and the actual costs of the project (labor and materials).

3. What additional information is being requested to complete a Zone Administrator report?

Several additional pieces of information are requested, in order to facilitate verification of other Enterprise Zone reports:

  • The business UIN (unemployment identification number);
  • jobs information, represented by the full-time equivalent information, at both the start of a project and at the project’s conclusion; and
  • the building permit issuance date.

4 What steps do I take in order to close a project that has been completed?

The ability to close out a project (and all of its corresponding building exemption certificates) is a new feature of the online portal for Zone Administrators. For projects that have been on the system prior to November, 2016, the Zone administrator will be required to provide additional information, such as business information, the building permit issuance date, jobs information, project cost estimates, and project actual costs.

5. Once I’ve closed a project on the system, can I re-open it to update any of the information?

No, once a project has been closed, it cannot be reopened. However, for reference purposes, you can still view project information (including the certificates) by checking the ‘show hidden’ box.

6. Last week I closed a project that was completed in July, 2023. Now I’m receiving calls from the general building contractor stating that her certificates for that project are invalid. Have I overlooked something?

Once a project is closed on the online portal, all the building material exemption certificates affiliated with this project will be automatically ceased. It is assumed that once a project is complete there is no additional need for sales tax exemptions on building materials.

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