§ 44-11-41. Tax credit for machine tool, metal trade or plastic process technician apprenticeships. (a) Any taxpayer who employs a machine tool and metal trade apprentice or plastic process technician apprentice duly enrolled and registered under the terms of a qualified program (as determined by the state apprenticeship council) is entitled to a tax credit for each eligible apprentice for fifty percent (50)% of actual wages paid, or four thousand eight hundred dollars ($4,800), whichever is less; provided, that the apprenticeships meet the following requirements:

(1) The tax credit is limited to qualified Machine Tool, Metal Trade and Plastics Process Technician programs with apprenticeship periods of duration which are more than four thousand (4,000) hours and less than ten thousand (10,000) hours.

(2) The apprentice must be employed on a full-time basis, which is defined as working a minimum of one hundred twenty (120) hours per month at the trade. Up to eighty (80) hours may be applied during the tax year against the one hundred twenty (120) hour limitation.

(3) Pre-apprentices are not counted as apprenticeships begun and wages earned by pre-apprentices are not eligible for tax credits under this regulation.

(4) The number of apprenticeships for which tax credit is allowed must exceed the average number of apprenticeships begun during the five (5) preceding income years.

(b) The tax credit is limited to the following trade: machinist, toolmaker, tool and diemaker, model maker, gage maker, patternmaker, tool and machine setter, diesinker, moldmaker, machine tool repairer, plastic process technician and in similar occupations which, as above, involve multiple work processes including the shaping of metals by machine tool equipment designed to perform cutting, grinding, milling, turning, drilling, boring, planing, hobbing, and abrading operations.

History of Section. (P.L. 1996, ch. 284, § 1.)