Business Incentives Reporting FAQs

The Illinois Department of Revenue (IDOR) is accepting reports through the online filing system for tax incentives provided during calendar year 2023 only. If you wish to file a report for a year preceding 2023, or amend a report filed for an earlier year, you must contact IDOR using the email form at the bottom of this page.

The following summarizes reporting requirements for calendar year 2023 due in 2024, including who is required to file a report, and the types of reports required.

Building Materials Exemption Certificate (BMEC) Report - If you obtained a sales tax exemption certificate issued by IDOR that was valid during calendar year 2023, you are required to file a report with IDOR. You are required to report the dollar amount of exempt building materials that you purchased during calendar year 2023. Do not report the dollar amount of exempt purchases made in years preceding 2023, or purchases made in calendar year 2024. If you wish to file a report for a prior year, you must contact IDOR using the email form at the bottom of this page.

Business Report - Businesses that received incentives in calendar year 2023 because they were located within either an Enterprise Zone or River Edge Redevelopment Zone, or because they were a High Impact/ Reimagining Energy and Vehicles (REV) / Manufacturing Illinois Chips for Real Opportunity (MICRO) Business, must file a business report with IDOR. Each business that received incentives in calendar year 2023 must provide the information IDOR requests. IDOR will determine the value of incentives for the business based on the information reported. Do not provide information on incentives received in years preceding calendar year 2023, or incentives received in calendar year 2024. If you wish to file a report for a prior year, you must contact IDOR using the email form at the bottom of this page.

Enterprise Zone reporting allows for one report per identification number (business) per Enterprise Zone. If your business received incentives for multiple projects in the same zone in calendar year 2023, you will have to report the aggregate information of all projects in one report for the entire Enterprise Zone.

If your business received incentives for multiple projects in different zones during calendar year 2023, you must report the aggregate information of all projects from all zones on one report.

Enterprise reporting allows for one report per identification number (business). Each business should file one report with the aggregate total of all incentives from all zones. If the same business operated in multiple zones, that business would submit one report with the aggregate total of all incentives from all zones.

Zone administrators fulfill their statutory reporting requirements upon creating and subsequently closing projects within 60 days after the end of the project.

Current employees are not automatically retained employees. Rather, there must be some indication that the business was going to close or eliminate employees for the employees to be counted as retained.

If the contractor was exempt from paying Illinois use tax due to the project location in an Enterprise Zone, then the business should report this in the "sales tax exemption" section of the report.

The value of each incentive must be reported with the highest degree of accuracy. Please modify your procedures to monitor the itemized value of each exemption.

You should use the most recently completed tax year for which your business has filed a return.

If the tax rate on your property tax bill reads as 4.567, that number represents 4.567 percent(%). On the report it should be listed in a decimal format, which is .04567.

You should report the amount spent on tax-exempt items during 2023.

Work hours for all persons working at the project site, whether identified as employees, contract employees, or otherwise, should be included in your calculations and reporting for full-time equivalent jobs.

For jobs (current and prior years) – Your final calculation to full-time equivalents should equal the sum of all hours worked by all persons at the project site divided by 1,820 hours.

For retained jobs (current year) – Your final calculation to full-time equivalent retained jobs should equal the sum of all hours worked by all persons at the project site divided by 1,750 hours.

Annually scheduled periods for inventory or repairs, vacations, holidays, paid sick leave, vacation, and other leave shall be included in this computation of full-time employment.

The developer/owner that received the tax incentives and property tax abatement is responsible for filing the report. The report should include job creation data for all persons working at the site, whether directly employed by the developer/owner receiving the incentives or employed by another party.

Building materials purchased during calendar year 2023 must be reported by the holder of the Illinois Department of Revenue-issued Building Material Exemption Certificate.

Businesses should report the amount listed on the Schedule 1299-A.

You should use the name of the business provided on the application.

If an error is made on a report that has already been submitted, you must submit a new report through the same method that you filed the original. All information for the report must be entered again in its entirety. There is no amended report. When you submit the new report it will supersede (replace) the original report.

The report will expire after 90 days of inactivity. This means that as long as the report is being actively modified (changing information, adding businesses, etc.), the report will be retained. Just opening the saved report and looking at it does not count as actively modified. If 90 days elapses without any modifications to the report, it will be deleted.

Immediately after you have submitted your report, a confirmation page will appear. You should print or write down the confirmation number given. You will need this number in order to view your report at a later date. Please note: once the window of time for filing your report ends (soon after June 1, 2024), you no longer will be able to log into the reporting interface to view past reports.

The Illinois Department of Revenue recommends that you keep your confirmation number until next year’s reporting season begins. You should keep your reports with your tax returns and information, and follow the standard time frame for keeping tax records for audit purposes. Please note: once the window of time for filing your report ends (soon after June 1, 2024), you no longer will be able to log into the reporting interface to view past reports

To view a previously filed report, you must return to the WebFile system and go into the type of report that was originally filed. You will be given a list of hyperlinks for all reports already filed. Select the hyperlink of the report you wish to view and enter your confirmation number when prompted. If you do not have the confirmation number for that particular report, use the contact information at the bottom of this page to retrieve the number. Make sure you include the specific report type, zone name (if applicable), and report year in your message.

Please note that after a reporting period closes, you will not be able to view a previously filed report.

You are not able to access last year's report. Please be sure to print a copy of this year's report when it is complete. You will not be able to access it once the reporting period closes.

Yes, you can use the same access code as the code you used last year when filing your report.

If you do not know your confirmation number for a particular report, use the contact information at the bottom of this page to retrieve the number. Make sure you include the specific report type, zone name (if applicable), and report year in your message.