Missouri Works

Missouri Works is an economic development program designed to support companies considering Missouri as a place to locate and/or grow their business. The program offers a mix of automatic and discretionary benefits in the form of 100% retention of state withholding tax, and/or refundable, transferable, sellable tax credits for qualified companies that choose Missouri as a place to invest and create jobs. 

Missouri One Start

Missouri One Start is the state’s premier workforce recruitment and training division. It helps eligible businesses of all sizes stay competitive by providing customized recruitment assistance and resources to train and upskill new and existing employees. Its recruitment strategies and training programs are tailored to the specific workforce needs of the businesses it serves, and training can take place on the job, at a company facility, or in a training center, depending on company needs. Qualified companies may also be eligible to receive relocation reimbursement for full-time employees relocating to Missouri for a new job.

Opportunity Zones

The Opportunity Zones program encourages long-term investment and job creation in low-income areas of the state by allowing investors to reinvest unrealized capital gains in designated census tracts. The large majority of New Madrid County is a federally-designated Opportunity Zone. You can see the designation in this flyer.

Missouri BUILD Program

Major projects that meet certain investment and job creation requirements may receive assistance through the Missouri BUILD (Business Use Incentive for Large-scale Development) program. BUILD is a selective and competitive program reserved for use with large projects that bring significant investment and jobs that benefit the community and state economies. The program uses bond financing for public or private infrastructure or new capital improvements of the business at the project location. Companies in the BUILD program realize the benefit of the program through refundable state tax credits issued to the company that are equal to the amount of annual debt service payments on the bonds over a period of 10 to 15 years.

Chapter 100 Program Benefits

Chapter 100 authorizes cities and counties to issue industrial development bonds to finance a wide variety of commercial facilities and equipment, and to offer real and/or personal property tax abatement, sales tax exemption on construction materials, and/or sales tax exemption on tangible personal property. The terms and abatement percentages are typically determined at the local level.

Chapter 353 Program Benefits

The Chapter 353 abatement is a local incentive tool designed to encourage the removal of blight through redevelopment in designated areas by providing real property tax abatement. Projects are reviewed by an Advisory Committee and recommended for approval or denial to the governing municipal council.  The incentive can be granted on real property improvements for up to 100% of the improvements at a length of 25 years. 

CDBG Industrial Infrastructure Grant

When eligible sites have certain infrastructure needs (public streets, water or sewer lines, engineering and other public facilities), using federal funds available to it, a local community can help reduce or offset costs associated with a given project in a “non-entitlement” area (a city under 50,000 in population or a county under 200,000 in population) using a CDBG Industrial Infrastructure Grant.

Data Center Sales Tax Exemption Program

The Data Center Sales Tax Exemption Program incentivizes the location and expansion of data centers in the state of Missouri by providing an exemption of the sales and utility taxes associated with a variety of activities necessary to build a new facility or expand an existing facility. Benefits of the program include state and local sales tax exemption on construction or rehab materials, machinery and equipment purchases (including equipment refresh), and utility costs. The benefit period and minimum qualification thresholds depend on if the facility is new to Missouri, or an existing facility expanding in the state.

Automotive Incentives

The new automotive incentives grant up to $25 million in tax credits to automotive manufacturers that invest $500 million in plant upgrades, while agreeing to retain current workers, and then an additional $25 million in tax credits if they invest another $250 million.

Tax Exemptions for Manufacturers

Machinery, equipment, and energy directly used to manufacture a product ultimately intended for sale is exempt from state and local sales and use tax. Manufacturers’ inventories (raw materials, goods in process and finished goods) are exempt from inventory taxes. Learn more

Income Tax Allocation

An important tax advantage for Missouri businesses is the amount of income considered taxable as only income earned in Missouri is taxed. And, in 2020, Missouri’s corporate income tax rate dropped to 4 percent, giving us one of the lowest rates in the U.S. It is important to note that Missouri has not adopted worldwide or nationwide unitary tax assessment in computing multinational corporate income tax liability. Learn more

R&D Tax Credit

This tax credit program allows a 15 percent income tax credit for additional qualifying research expenses or a 20 percent income tax credit for qualifying expenses related to research conducted in conjunction with a public or private college or university located in Missouri. The program has a credit cap of $10 million annually with no single taxpayer allowed to receive more than $300,000 in credits per year. Of the $10 million cap, $5 million is reserved for minority and women business enterprises and small businesses. New businesses, defined as a business less than five years old, are issued full tax credits first.