Georgia Governor Signs Data Center Tax Exemption Legislation
Bill HB 696 Spurs Massive Data Center Development In the Atlanta Region
Governor Nathan signed new data center incentive legislation on May 8, 2018. The new Bill, known as HB 696, overhauled Georgia current data center tax policy allowing tax incentives to be applied to a broader range of new data center investments in the state.
Beneficiaries of the new legislation are the myriad of recent new data center announcements in the Atlanta metro region which will total several billion dollars of investment over the next several years. Switch, CyrusOne, Facebook and T5 data centers have all announced major projects to be completed over the next 24 months.
The bill establishes a sales tax exemption, for the period from July 1, 2018 through December 31, 2028, for high-technology data center equipment that is incorporated into or used as a high-technology data center.
To qualify for the exemption, the data center must create at least 20 new quality jobs and must invest at least $100 million to $250 million, with the exact investment threshold based upon the county where the data center is located. The investments must be made over a consecutive seven-year period.
The new legislation will be driver of the planned and future growth and investment in the data center arena in the state of Georgia and allow the Atlanta metro to transition to one of the top data center markets in the US.
