All eligible employees must receive a voucher in order for an Enterprise Zone business to receive the hiring tax credit. The City of Oakland requires all voucher applications to be submitted through an online vouchering system. The system receives application submittals, processes and returns the determination through the system. The Agent will receive a certificate if the application was approved or a denial notice with explanation.
In order for a voucher application to be submitted, the following steps must be completed:
· Registration of Agent
· Registration of Business and Enterprise Zone Business Location
· Submission of complete voucher request (see below)
Agent Registration
The person requesting the voucher is considered the Agent of the business for vouchering purposes. This will include an outside consultant (CPA, etc.) as well as a person within the business itself who may be handling this process for the business. In order to register, an agent will go to the online system and click on the agent sign-in icon. The system will take you through a series of questions obtaining basic information (name, address, etc.).
Business and enterprise zone Registration
As part of the Agent Registration section, the agent will register the business and the qualifying business location (location in enterprise zone). During this process, the agent will provide the name of the qualifying business, the business contact and the qualifying enterprise zone addresses.
After the Agent has properly registered the business and enterprise zone location, the following steps must be following to complete the voucher application submittal(s).
VOUCHER SUBMISSIONS
GENERAL INFORMATION
Paperless Environment
With this new process, the voucher application will automatically be completed based on the responses captured during the electronic process. Although our goal is to make the voucher submission process completely paperless, it does pose a problem in capturing the supporting documentation required to support the applicant qualification category.
To complete the process in a paperless environment, it will be necessary for you to scan the supporting documentation into an electronic format (i.e. PDF) for submission and viewing by the City of Oakland. Please note that the ONLY acceptable format allowed is PDF. If you are unable to provide the supporting documentation in a PDF format then you will be able to mail the documentation to the City of Oakland. The mailing will be limited to the supporting documentation. The voucher application will not be included as part of this process. Generally, only the supporting documentation and voucher confirmation page (generated by the system) will be required. The only exception to this general rules is when you are qualifying an individual under the economically disadvantaged individual 14 years of age or older category. For this situation, a signature is required on the income verification form by the preparer of the information and by the employee if they received self-employment income or no income during the 90 day review period. As a result, you will need to provide a copy of the signed form as part of your supporting documentation.
Whether the documentation was sent electronically or mailed, you should always maintain the original documents. Please do not send original documents as part of this process. If the City of Oakland requires original documents or signatures as part of its verification procedures then it will make such requests at a later date.
Please have the electronic PDF or hard copy supporting documentation files nearby when you begin the process.
Voucher Submissions are Limited to a Single Enterprise Zone Location
In order to reduce the possibility of errors with regards to the employee work locations, voucher submissions are limited by location. For example, if you have a business with two Oakland EZ Locations for that business then you will need to complete the voucher submission process twice – once for each location.
Please have the applicant/employee information separated by EZ Business and EZ Location as you begin the process.
Property registered the EZ Business and EZ location
As part of the voucher submission process, it is necessary for you to register the EZ Business and applicable EZ Location in the system prior to beginning the voucher submission process. Once entered, you will be able to select the business and location information for subsequent voucher submissions without re-entering the information each time.
Please select the “Business Registration” menu item or click here to register a new business and/or add a new EZ location. To add a business, you will need to hit the “Add” button that appears on the top and bottom of the screen. To edit the information of an existing business, you would click on the name of the business or hit the “Edit” button next to the business you wish to modify. To add or modify the enterprise zone location information you would click the symbol underneath the EZ Locations header next to the applicable business.
The accuracy of this information is crucial since this is the source of data used to complete the voucher certificate if the voucher application was approved.
2 Different Methods for Entering Employee Information
We give you two different methods for entering the voucher application data into the system:
Option 1:
Agent enters the employee information into the system by entering the employee information directly into the system one employee at a time. This approach provides for the highest degree of accuracy since it allows the user to focus more attention to each employee.
Option 2:
Agent completes a template that contains the employee information for multiple employees and allows the Agent to upload the information directly into the system without going through the effort of entering one at a time. Although this approach provides for a quicker method of entering the information, the Agent should spend some additional time ensuring the information is accurate before uploading the information.
It is important to realize that the template is an Excel Workbook that contains special macros to assist the user in entering the information accurately. Only this template may be used – an Excel Worksheet that contains the same data headers will not work with the system. The required template can be obtained through the system during the voucher application submittal process, in the Resource Library section on the home page or by clicking here.
Voucher Application Processing Options
The City of Oakland provides for the following 3 processing options:
1. Standard 60: Voucher application will be completed in 60 calendar days
2. Expedite 30: Voucher application will be completed in 30 calendar days
3. Expedite 15: Voucher application will be completed in 15 calendar days
Please note that the time period begins from the date that the Agent has submitted all of the requirement information (application, supporting documentation and processing fee payment).
SPECIFIC STEPS:
We will take you through a series of steps that will allow you to submit voucher request(s) directly to the City of Oakland in a paperless environment.
1. Click on the Voucher Submission item on the menu
2. Select the Business and Enterprise Zone that you will be submitting voucher applications
3. Enter the number of voucher applications you will be submitting
4. Select the applicable processing time (Standard 60, Expedite 30 or Expedite 15)
5. Enter or upload the application information into the system
6. Attach the supporting documentation for each employee
7. Select payment option: Online Payment or print invoice and mail with check
8. Submit voucher applications
All hard copy documentation submitted and processing fee payment should be included with confirmation and/or invoice and mailed to the following:
Susana Villarreal, Enterprise Zone CoordinatorCity of Oakland - CEDAWorkforce Development250 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, Suite 3315Oakland, CA 94612