For purposes of the Rural Economic Opportunities Act:

(1) Any term defined in the Nebraska Revenue Act of 1967 and used in the Rural Economic Opportunities Act has the same meaning as in the Nebraska Revenue Act of 1967;

(2) Average annual total employment means the average total employment reported for the county of employment for the most recent calendar year reported as of July 1 by the Department of Labor;

(3) Base year means the year immediately before the year in which the application was submitted;

(4) Base-year employee means any individual who was employed in Nebraska and subject to the Nebraska income tax on compensation received from the taxpayer or its predecessors during the base year and who is employed at the project;

(5) Compensation means the wages and other payments subject to withholding for federal income tax purposes;

(6) County average annual wage means the most recent average annual wage paid by all employers in a county or in the state, whichever is lower, for the most recent calendar year reported as of July 1 by the Department of Labor. County average annual wage for a project located in more than one county means the county average annual wages for each county in which the project is located, multiplied by the total of the average annual total employment for each county in which the project is located, summing the products for all counties in which the project is located, then dividing the result by the average annual total employment for all counties in which the project is located;

(7) Entitlement period means the year during which the required increases in employment, wages, and investment were met or exceeded and the next six years;

(8) Equivalent employees means the number computed by dividing the total hours paid in a year by the product of forty times the number of weeks in a year;

(9) Investment, for qualified property owned by the taxpayer, means the original cost of the property. Investment, for qualified property rented by the taxpayer, means the average net annual rent multiplied by the number of years of the lease for which the taxpayer was originally bound, not to exceed ten years or the end of the third year after the entitlement period, whichever is earlier. The rental of land included in and incidental to the leasing of a building is included in the computation;

(10) Labor force means the total annual average county labor force for the most recent calendar year reported as of July 1 by the Department of Labor;

(11) Motor vehicle means any motor vehicle, trailer, or semitrailer as defined in the Motor Vehicle Registration Act and subject to registration for operation on the highways;

(12) Number of new employees means the number of equivalent employees at the project during the year minus the number of equivalent employees during the base year;

(13)(a) Qualified business means any business engaged in the storage, warehousing, distribution, transportation, or sale of tangible personal property. Qualified business also means any business engaged in any of the following activities:

(i) The conducting of research, development, or testing for scientific, agricultural, animal husbandry, food product, or industrial purposes;

(ii) The performance of data processing, telecommunication, insurance, or financial services. Financial services for purposes of this subdivision only includes services provided by any person or entity licensed by the Department of Banking and Finance or the Securities and Exchange Commission;

(iii) The assembly, fabrication, manufacture, or processing of tangible personal property;

(iv) The administrative management of any activities, including headquarter facilities relating to such activities; or

(v) Any combination of the activities listed in subdivisions (13)(a)(i) through (iv) of this section;

(b) Qualified business does not include (i) any business activity in which eighty percent or more of the total sales are (A) sales to the ultimate consumer of food prepared for immediate consumption or (B) sales to the ultimate consumer of tangible personal property which is not assembled, fabricated, manufactured, or processed by the taxpayer or which is not used by the purchaser in any of the activities listed in subdivisions (13)(a)(i) through (v) of this section or (ii) a livestock operation. For purposes of this subdivision, livestock operation means the feeding or holding of beef cattle, dairy cattle, horses, swine, sheep, poultry, or other livestock in buildings, lots, or pens;

(14) Qualified employee leasing company means a company which places all employees of a client-lessee on its payroll and leases such employees to the client-lessee on an ongoing basis for a fee and, by written agreement between the employee leasing company and client-lessee, grants to the client-lessee input into the hiring and firing of the employees leased to the client-lessee;

(15) Qualified property means any tangible property of a type subject to depreciation, amortization, or other recovery under the Internal Revenue Code, or the components of such property, that will be located and used at the project. Qualified property does not include (a) aircraft, barges, motor vehicles, railroad rolling stock, or watercraft or (b) property that is rented by the taxpayer qualifying under the Rural Economic Opportunities Act to another person;

(16) Qualifying wage means the greater of one hundred twenty-five percent of the county average annual wage in the county or counties in which the project is located or one hundred percent of the regional average annual wage in the region or regions in which the project is located;

(17) Region means the following regions:

(a) Panhandle region, composed of the counties of Banner, Box Butte, Cheyenne, Dawes, Deuel, Garden, Kimball, Morrill, Scotts Bluff, Sheridan, and Sioux;

(b) Mid-plains region, composed of the counties of Arthur, Chase, Cherry, Dawson, Dundy, Frontier, Furnas, Gosper, Grant, Hayes, Hitchcock, Hooker, Keith, Lincoln, Logan, McPherson, Perkins, Red Willow, and Thomas;

(c) Central region, composed of the counties of Adams, Blaine, Buffalo, Clay, Custer, Franklin, Garfield, Greeley, Hall, Hamilton, Harlan, Howard, Kearney, Loup, Merrick, Nance, Nuckolls, Phelps, Sherman, Valley, Webster, and Wheeler;

(d) Northeast region, composed of the counties of Antelope, Boone, Boyd, Brown, Burt, Cedar, Colfax, Cuming, Dakota, Dixon, Dodge, Holt, Keya Paha, Knox, Madison, Pierce, Platte, Rock, Stanton, Thurston, and Wayne;

(e) Southeast region, composed of the counties of Butler, Fillmore, Gage, Jefferson, Johnson, Nemaha, Otoe, Pawnee, Polk, Richardson, Saline, Saunders, Seward, Thayer, and York;

(f) Omaha region, composed of the counties of Douglas, Sarpy, Cass, and Washington; and

(g) Lincoln region, composed of the county of Lancaster;

(18) Regional average annual wage, for a project located in one region, means the most recent average annual wage paid by all employers in the region for the most recent calendar year calculated by multiplying the average annual wage for each county in the region for the most recent calendar year reported as of July 1 by the Department of Labor by the corresponding average annual total employment in each county, summing the products for all counties in the region, and then dividing the result by the average annual total employment of all counties in the region. Regional average annual wage, for a project located in more than one region, means the regional average annual wage for each region in which the project is located, multiplied by the total of the average annual total employment for each region in which the project is located, the product then divided by the sum of the average annual total employment for the regions;

(19) Related persons means any corporations, partnerships, limited liability companies, or joint ventures which are or would otherwise be members of the same unitary group, if incorporated, or any persons who are considered to be related persons under section 267(b) or (c) or 707(b) of the Internal Revenue Code;

(20) Taxpayer means any person subject to the sales and use taxes and an income tax imposed by the Nebraska Revenue Act of 1967; any corporation, partnership, limited liability company, or joint venture that is or would otherwise be a member of the same unitary group, if incorporated, which is, or whose partners, members, or owners are, subject to such tax; and any other partnership, limited liability company, subchapter S corporation, subchapter T cooperative, or joint venture when the partners, shareholders, or members are subject to such tax; and

(21) Year means the taxable year of the taxpayer.