Teleseminar: What You Wish You Knew About Your QTI Project

Last week I presented a FREE teleseminar to Florida businesses to help with their QTI incentive projects.  This FREE teleseminar was developed after hearing the concerns of businesses that there is no guidance for the QTI program after a project is awarded.  These businesses faced the challenge of not knowing enough to successfully track and report their QTI goals to the State.

In this 1-hour teleseminar, we covered the following:

- Four major reasons why businesses do not get their FULL scheduled payment.

-  General requirements of the QTI program. 

- Review of the 60+ page QTI agreement.  The agreement terms were broken down into simple day-to-day language that the "ordinary" person would understand. 

- Why it is important to track incentive goals each year to ensure that the company WILL meet the requirements to receive FULL payments each year.

The next teleseminar is scheduled for the month of August.  Stay tuned for more information on dates and times.

If you would like to find out more about this and other services offered by MarLynn Consulting, give us a call at (850) 727-0293.  We look forward to partnering with you on ALL of your incentive project needs.



Margo Thomas
MarLynn Consulting Group, LLC
2012 Start-Up Business of the Year

Margo Thomas, owner of MarLynn Consulting is an expert in economic incentive grants compliance management.  For nine years, she assisted the State of Florida in analyzing incentive data to determine if a business met the requirements to qualify for its scheduled payments.  Today, she helps businesses in incentive programs like Florida's QTI track and report their project goals to the State. She provides guidance and training to businesses participating in economic development incentives to ensure they receive ALL of the money awarded under their incentive project agreement.

Hit Your QTI Target On the First Try?

I’ve learned, over the years that many businesses celebrate receiving a QTI award. And obtaining a QTI award is awesome! However, a business will not receive the scheduled payments unless it demonstrates that it has successfully hit all of the established QTI target goals.

Knowing ahead of time what is required eliminates the “unknown”. When it comes to any economic incentive project, you must ensure that your target goals are in sight at all times. For this reason, I usually recommend that my clients start aiming at their economic incentive target goals as soon as an incentive agreement is executed. Waiting until your incentive report is due to determine if you have met your goals is TOO LATE.

To see the full article on Tallahassee Chamber's blog, click the link: http://bit.ly/vf0MUw

What Not To Do With Your QTI Project

In my last blog post for Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce, I explained that the biggest mistakes usinesses make with their incentive projects (like QTI) are:

1. Not tracking project commitments
2. Not communicating
3. Assigning an inexperienced Project Manager
4. Submitting inadequate documentation

View full post here http://bit.ly/tbaJ2E.

Ask Margo: Frequently Asked Questions About Economic Incentives (Final)

Finally, we are at the last post for this series.  Again, I want to remind you that this series is based on questions or concerns I've encountered over the years, while working with the State's agent for managing a number of its major incentive projects. I've also been getting calls recently from businesses with the same the same questions and concerns.  As such, I decided to prepare this list for your review.  If your burning question is not included in any of these posts, send me an email at info@marlynnconsulting.com and I will add them to the list.

Now, here is the final post of Frequently Asked Questions related to incentive programs:

What are the benefits of working with a consultant, rather than doing it myself?

Although managing your project and proving to the State that you meet the scheduled requirements are not difficult, it is time consuming and requires knowledge of the incentive program. As such, I believe the greatest benefit of working with a consultant is you’ll have the benefit of an expert to manage your project and report your incentive commitments to the State. Ultimately, this frees up your team’s time to focus on the real reason why you are in business – to provide excellent client service and to increase your business’ revenue.

If you choose a consultant to provide full compliance services, the consultant acts as your Compliance Department. As a result, you won’t have to worry about your incentive commitments, because someone else if monitoring those commitments on your behalf. If you choose to manage your project on your own, but you feel you need some quality control to ensure that your analysis and annual reports are appropriate and accurate, you may work with a consultant to provide an oversight review. This process gives you peace of mind, knowing that your project’s reporting package will be reviewed and approved in a timely manner. Another option, if you choose to manage your project on your own would be to have your team participate in a training program to ensure that they have the tools needed to successfully manage and report your project commitments. Again the benefit is the peace of mind, knowing that your project is in good hands.

Feel free to comment or send me an email at info@marlynnconsulting.com if you have other questions that you want answered. I look forward to hearing your comments, questions and concerns about your incentive project. 

IT’S THAT TIME AGAIN!!

If you are a participant of the State of Florida’s Qualified Target Industry Tax Incentive (QTI) program, you should have received your QTI Claim Application by now.  It is time to prove to the State that you have met your QTI compliance goals for 2010. 

Have you analyzed your payroll data to determine if you successfully achieved your QTI compliance goals?

Have you analyzed your tax data to determine if you qualify for a full refund?

TIP: If you haven’t started preparing your compliance reports don’t fret, you still have time.  The State gives you an opportunity to request a one-time 30-day extension, which gives you some additional time.  Please note – your request must be in writing.  This gives you until March 2^nd to submit your claim application and supporting documents to the State’s agent responsible for verifying your claims.

It is your responsibility to ensure that all required documentation is submitted to support satisfaction of your compliance goals/commitments.  Proper documentation will result in timely review of your QTI claim package, which will ultimately result in timely payments.

For additional information on how to analyze your payroll data to determine whether you qualify for a tax refund; how to determine the amount of refund you will receive; or what type of documentation you are required to submit, contact me by email at info@marlynnconsulting.com.