Texas Enterprise Zone Program | The Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce

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The Texas Enterprise Zone Program is an economic development tool for local communities to partner with the State of Texas to promote job creation and capital investment in economically distressed areas of the state.

Designated projects are eligible to apply for state sales and use tax refunds on purchases of all taxable items purchased for use at the qualified business site related to the project or activity.

The level and amount of refund is related to the capital investment and jobs created at the qualified business site. In addition, local communities must offer incentives to participants under the enterprise zone program, such as tax abatement, tax increment financing, one-stop permitting, and other incentives developed by participating communities.

Local communities must nominate a company as an Enterprise Project to be eligible to participate in the Enterprise Zone Program. Legislation limits the number of projects that can be designated per biennium. The state accepts applications quarterly with deadlines on the first working day of March, June, September and December.

Communities may nominate projects for a designation period up to five years, non-inclusive of a 90-day window prior to the application deadline. Employment and capital investment commitments must be incurred and met within this timeframe.

Projects may be physically located in or outside of an Enterprise Zone:

If located within a zone, the company commits that at least 25% of their new employees will meet economically disadvantaged or enterprise zone residence requirements.
If located outside of a zone, the company commits that at least 35% of their new employees will meet economically disadvantaged or enterprise zone residency requirements.

Under limited statutory provisions, an enterprise project designation may be granted for job retention.

Enterprise Zones exist in all five of the Austin metropolitan area's counties; see map. (182 kb)

State Benefits to Participation
Level of capital investment	Maximum number of jobs allocated	Maximum potential refund	Maximum refund per job allocated
$40,000 to $399,999	10	$25,000	$2,500
$400,000 to $999,999	25	$62,500	$2,500
$1,000,000 to $4,999,999	125	$312,500	$2,500
$5,000,000 to $149,999,999	500	$1,250,000	$2,500
$150,000,000 to $249,999,999 (“Double Jumbo Project”)	500	$2,500,000	$5,000
$250,000,000 or more (“Triple Jumbo Project”)	500	$3,750,000	$7,500