$4 billion in tax incentives may go down the drain? Foxconn's panel factory in Weizhou hit by another setback

According to Taiwan media China Times Electronic News, Hon Hai Technology Group today notified the U.S. state of Wisconsin that it objects to the state's view that Hon Hai does not qualify for job creation tax credits.

The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, which is affiliated with the Wisconsin state government, said earlier this month that based on Foxconn's capital investment and employment in 2019, Foxconn did not qualify for tax credits.

It is reported that the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation determined that Foxconn's factory in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, only employed 281 full-time employees eligible for tax credits and had only $300 million in capital expenditures.

Foxconn said that the factory employs more than 520 full-time employees, which has reached the minimum threshold to qualify for tax credits, and that it has invested US$750 million in the entire project.

Meanwhile, Foxconn's lawyer Robert Berry said in a notice today that Wisconsin's decision not to allow Foxconn to receive the credit was not only a deviation from cognition but also a deviation from the contract timeline. Berry said he hopes to resolve the dispute within 30 days.

Wisconsin informed Foxconn on the 12th of this month that if it wanted to qualify for the tax credit, it had to rewrite the agreement reached by the two parties in 2017 to reflect Foxconn's plan to reduce the size of its factory.

Foxconn signed a contract with Wisconsin in 2017 to invest $10 billion in the local area to set up a panel factory, employ up to 13,000 people, and receive nearly $4 billion in Wisconsin and local tax incentives.

However, Foxconn later significantly reduced the scale of its investment plans, and the government of new Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers insisted that the contract must be modified in order for Foxconn to obtain tax credits.