FIRST REGULAR SESSION
93RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY
INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVES CHAPPELLE-NADAL (Sponsor), BAKER (25), LOW (39),
BROWN (50), RUCKER, PARKER AND HUBBARD (Co-sponsors).
Read 1st time February 2, 2005 and copies ordered printed.
STEPHEN S. DAVIS, Chief Clerk
AN ACT
To amend chapter 135, RSMo, by adding thereto one new section relating to a tax credit for workplace violence safety and education programs.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:
Section A. Chapter 135, RSMo, is amended by adding thereto one new section, to be known as section 135.434, to read as follows:
135.434. 1. This section shall be known as the "Tax Credit for Workplace Violence Safety and Education Programs Act".
2. For all tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2006, each taxpayer who is an employer is entitled to a credit against the tax imposed under chapter 143, RSMo, in an amount equal to forty percent of the workplace violence safety and education costs paid or incurred by the employer during the taxable year. If the amount of the credit exceeds the taxpayer's liability under this section for the year, then the excess shall not be carried forward to apply to a succeeding year or carried back to apply to a prior year.
3. For the purposes of this section, "workplace violence safety and education programs costs" means any cost certified by the department of labor and industrial relations as being for the purpose of:
(1) Ensuring the safety of employees from domestic violence within the workplace;
(2) Implementing human resource or personnel policies initiated to protect employees from domestic violence in the workplace.
4. Costs that may be certified by the department of labor and industrial relations shall include, but not be limited to, any of the following:
(1) The hiring of new security personnel in order to address domestic violence in the workplace;
(2) The implementation of human resource safety policies in the workplace, including but not limited to, not transmitting an employee's full name on any public address system that is used to announce information to the general public, not providing an employee's work schedule to any person other than the employee or the employee's designee, not providing an employee's personal information such as a home address or telephone number to any person without the employee's previous consent;
(3) The creation of buddy systems or escort systems for walking employees to parking lots, parked cars, subway stations, or bus stops in order to address domestic violence in the workplace;
(4) The purchase or installation of new security equipment, including surveillance equipment, lighting fixtures, cardkey access systems, and identification systems in order to address domestic violence in the workplace;
(5) The implementation of leave policies for the purpose of allowing or accommodating the needs of victims of domestic violence to pursue counseling, legal assistance, or safety planning, including leave from work to attend meetings with attorneys, to give evidentiary statements or depositions, and to attend hearings or trials in court;
(6) The implementation of flexible work policies for the purpose of allowing or accommodating the needs of employees who are victims of domestic violence, or employees at risk with respect to those crimes, to avoid assailants;
(7) The implementation of transfer policies for the purpose of allowing or accommodating the needs of employees subjected to domestic violence to change office locations within the business in order to avoid assailants or to allow the transfer of an employee who has perpetrated domestic violence in order to protect the victim.