Income taxes: credits: qualified employees.

The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law authorize various credits against the taxes imposed by those laws, including a credit for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2009, in an amount equal to $3,000 for each net increase of full-time employee hired during the taxable year by a qualified employer, as defined. Existing law caps the total amount of that credit that may be allocated under those provisions to $400,000,000. This bill would reduce the total amount of credit that may be allocated under those laws to $350,000,000. This bill would also authorize a credit against those taxes for each taxable year beginning on or after January 1, 2012, in an amount equal to $5,000, or a fraction thereof, for each net increase of full-time employees, that are paid no less than the state minimum wage, hired during the taxable year by a qualified employer. This bill would cap the total amount of credit that may be allocated to $50,000,000. This bill would include a change in state statute that would result in a taxpayer paying a higher tax within the meaning of Section 3 of Article XIII A of the California Constitution, and thus would require for passage the approval of 23 of the membership of each house of the Legislature. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.