City of San Diego Business Cooperation Program

The City's Business Cooperation Program lowers the cost of doing business in San Diego and prevents the annual loss of millions of dollars in sales and use tax revenue, due to misallocation. These losses include taxes paid by San Diego purchasers and sales taxes collected by firms operating in San Diego.

Financial Incentives

Financial incentives encourage businesses and nonprofit corporations with significant equipment expenditures to take part in the program, thereby allocating sales and use taxes to the City. This increases the City's General Fund revenues used to provide a variety of services that support the business community, such as infrastructure, public safety, and fire protection.

The financial incentives can significantly lower operating and facility costs for a wide variety of companies. These financial incentives are based on the amount of tax revenue allocated to the City of San Diego by participating firms.

• A cash rebate equal to .25/dollar (25 basis points on the total sale or purchase price).
• A business tax/development fee credit equal to .45/dollar (45 basis points on the total sale or purchase price). Participating firms can pay their annual business license tax and/or fees arising from new facility development with credit earned by allocating their taxes to the City. Firms which choose this option can "cash in" any unused credit at a later time.

To assist in this program, the City has retained a tax consultant who works with many major corporations in California to ensure that local governments responsible for providing municipal services receive the sales and use taxes necessary to cover the cost of those services.

Contact Information

For more information about the Business Cooperation Program, contact the City's Economic Development Division. You can visit their website by going to www.sandiego.gov/economic-development/