The Fairfield County EZ provides tax abatement for real and tangible personal property for up to 10 years. The maximum level of abatement in the City of Lancaster under this program is 75%. The EZ tax exemption is negotiated with a team of local representatives which makes its recommendation to the Fairfield County Commissioners for approval. The EZ program is especially attractive to companies and projects that are making substantial investments in tangible personal property including machinery and equipment. The EZ is available at most industrial zoned sites such as Rock Mill Industrial Park and the east side industrial areas.

The CRA provides tax abatement for improvements to real property. The City of Lancaster presently has a CRA in place covering the majority of the industrial zoned sites. This pre-1994 tax abatement program provides 100% tax exemption for up to 15 years for new industrial real property improvements. The abatement program is especially attractive to industrial and commercial developers. This program has a $250,000 minimum to qualify.

The City may offer annual performance-based cash incentives based upon a percentage of actual payroll withholdings for Industrial and/or Advanced Technology companies providing a minimum of thirty (30) new jobs and/or minimum payroll of $1.5 million. The period/duration will be 1 to 10 years with an incentive range of 10% to 50%. For more information on this incentive, contact the Economic Development Director.

The City may offer annual performance-based cash incentives based upon a percentage of actual payroll withholdings for companies currently or newly located in the Historic District providing a minimum of ten (10) new jobs to the city and/or a minimum payroll of $400,000.00. The period/duration will be 3 to 5 years with an incentive range of 10% to 50%. For more information on this incentive, contact the Economic Development Director.

The FTZ is a federal program which provides tax benefits for certain operations. The Rock Mill Industrial Park contains 44 acres of FTZ property in which stored merchandise is considered to be in international commerce and not in the U.S. for Customs purposes. The FTZ also provides exemption from the Ohio inventory tax portion of the tangible personal property tax. Location in the FTZ area of Rock Mill Industrial Park can greatly reduce property taxes for companies with sizeable inventories.

The Lancaster Port Authority can provide financing lease structures for projects which could result in the exemption of sales taxes on construction materials. Typically, 50% of the costs of a building are labor which is not subject to sales taxes. The remaining half of the costs would represent construction materials. Currently the sales tax rate for Lancaster is 7.25%.