Did You Know?
National bass fishing tournaments have been held on the Arkansas River at Little Rock and Pine Bluff.
Tax Incentives
Jobs Tax Credit and Sales Tax Exemption
The State of Arkansas operates the way businesses do, proactively anticipating opportunities and quickly responding to challenges in innovative ways. This approach, combined with our incentive programs, makes Arkansas a profitable choice for locating or expanding a business.
Arkansas' performance-based incentives are nationally competitive and easy to use. The Arkansas Department of Economic Development (ADED) will focus on your business's specific needs, conduct a cost-benefit analysis and design a tailored incentive package.
Arkansas' incentives are based on payroll instead of number of jobs and are determined according to location. Counties are divided into four tiers, based on poverty rate, unemployment, per capita income and population growth; incentives are more lucrative in less-developed counties. Tiers are assigned annually on July 1, based on the previous year's statistics.
The new incentives may be combined to allow for more flexibility.
There are special incentives for start-up businesses in six targeted sectors.
Payment-in-Lieu-of-Taxes Program
Real and personal property financed by revenue bonds and general obligation bonds may be exempt from property taxes during the lease-amortization period in which a local government retains title to the property. Payments by businesses to local governments in lieu of property taxes are generally encouraged and negotiated between the parties involved.
The negotiated payment in lieu of property taxes shall not be less than 35 percent of the property taxes that would have been paid if the property were on the tax rolls.
Tax Increment Financing
An amendment to the Arkansas Constitution enables local governments to issue bonds or notes to finance improvements in a redevelopment district. The increased tax revenue that these improvements generate is used to repay the bonds. Redevelopment districts are those in areas that are considered blighted, deteriorated or underdeveloped.