A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to increase the dollar amount of the credit for small business employee health benefits and to extend the sunset date of the credit.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  G.S. 105‑129.16E(a) reads as rewritten:
"(a)	Credit. – A small business that provides health benefits for all of its eligible employees during the taxable year is allowed a credit to offset its costs in providing health benefits for its eligible employees. For the purposes of this subsection, a taxpayer provides health benefits if it pays at least fifty percent (50%) of the premiums for health care coverage that equals or exceeds the minimum provisions of the basic health care plan of coverage recommended by the Small Employer Carrier Committee pursuant to G.S. 58‑50‑125 or if its employees have qualifying existing coverage.
The credit is equal to a dollar amount per eligible employee whose total wages or salary received from the business does not exceed forty thousand dollars ($40,000) on an annual basis. The dollar amount is three hundred dollars ($300.00), not to exceed the taxpayer's costs of providing health benefits for the employee during the taxable year."
SECTION 2.  G.S. 105‑129.16E(d) reads as rewritten:
"(d)	Sunset. – This section expires for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2014."
SECTION 3.  Section 2 of this act is effective for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2008.  The remainder of this act is effective when it becomes law.