Growing the Bluegrass: Kentucky’s Small Business Tax Credit

By Walter Parker, Building Kentucky

Your business could receive a tax credit of up to $25,000 per year. The catch? Just keep growing. 

The Kentucky Small Business Tax Credit (KSBTC) helps small businesses in nearly every industry across Kentucky grow and flourish. So far, Kentucky small businesses have saved $12.6 million through the KSBTC. 

One of those businesses is Louisville-based Volta, which provides world-class IT services to the Commonwealth and the eastern US. With the savings from the KSBTC, Volta has been able to continue increasing their workforce. Those new employees help keep Volta competitive, even against bigger companies. 

“It gives us a break, from a financial perspective, to be able to invest in those people where we normally would not have been able to,” said Marshall Butler, president and CEO of Volta.  

Print My Threads, similarly, is using the KSBTC to help grow its custom merchandise business in Eastern Kentucky.  

“As a small business, it really helps having somebody in your corner,” said Print My Threads CEO Kyle Robinson. 

Print My Threads makes merchandise for brands across the country. They discovered that investing in talent, equipment and resources, while important for growing a business, quickly adds up. 

“When we found out about the Kentucky Small Business Tax Credit, that made growing a lot easier,” Robinson said. “And when we grow, the brands that we helped grow.” 

Andrea Mueller, certified professional landscape designer and owner of Inside Out Design, watched her father build a company throughout her childhood. When she eventually took on the same mission, she realized how valuable it is to have support. 

Inside Out Design has received the KSBTC for nine years. Over that time, the savings created from the tax credit allowed them to purchase equipment for the office and job sites. 

“There’s no way we could do all of this without the Kentucky Small Business Tax Credit,” she said. “A lot of small businesses don’t make it past five years and 10 years, especially. So every time we hit one of those milestones, I’m like, ‘Yeah, we did it.’” 

The KSBTC enables many small businesses to operate in Kentucky and create jobs for local communities. So far, businesses receiving the tax credit have created 3,766 new jobs. 

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If your for-profit business: 

• Has 50 or fewer full-time employees 
• Pays employees at least $10.88 per hour 
• Hired at least one new full-time W-2 employee, and that employee has been on the payroll for at least one year 
• Invested at least $5,000 in qualifying equipment or technology to improve the business 

… then you may be eligible to apply. 

To learn more and apply for the Kentucky Small Business Tax Credit, visit kytaxcredit.org