Form IT-607I: Instructions for the Excelsior Jobs Program Tax Credit (Tax Year 2025)

Form IT-607I is the instruction booklet that accompanies Form IT-607, Claim for Excelsior Jobs Program Tax Credit, issued by the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. It walks businesses and individual owners through the process of calculating and claiming this credit for the 2025 tax year. The Excelsior Jobs Program is one of New York’s main economic development incentives, designed to reward companies that create jobs and invest capital in the state, and this form is how that reward gets translated into an actual reduction on a tax return.

Unlike a fillable PDF, IT-607I is a paper-based instructional document. There are no digital form fields to type into, so the process is straightforward but manual: download the PDF, print it, and use it as a reference while filling out the corresponding Form IT-607 by hand. Anyone claiming this credit needs to read through the instructions carefully because the Excelsior program has several distinct components, and the calculation method changes depending on which component applies to the business.

Who Needs This Form

This form is intended for businesses that have been admitted into the Excelsior Jobs Program by Empire State Development and have met their job creation or investment benchmarks for the year. That includes corporations, partnerships, and sole proprietors who received a certificate of eligibility and now need to report their credit amount to the Tax Department. It also applies to partners, members, and shareholders of pass-through entities that participate in the program, since the credit flows through to the individual owners’ personal returns.

If a business was approved for Excelsior but never actually met its job or investment targets during the year, it generally cannot claim a credit for that period, and the instructions explain how to confirm eligibility before filling out the form. Companies that are unsure whether they qualify should check their original certificate of eligibility from Empire State Development, since the credit components and caps are spelled out there.

When and Why the Form Is Used

IT-607 and its instructions are filed each year that a business wants to claim a portion of the Excelsior credit, which can include the jobs credit, the investment credit, the research and development credit, and the real property tax credit, depending on the specific track the company was approved under. The instructions detail how to compute each component separately before combining them into one total credit amount that gets carried to the taxpayer’s main income tax return.

Because the credit is tied to actual performance metrics like net new jobs and qualified investments, the form requires supporting calculations rather than a simple flat amount. The instructions include worksheets and examples that help filers avoid common errors, such as miscounting eligible employees or applying the wrong investment percentage.

Businesses that work with multiple state incentive programs often find it useful to compare Excelsior against other credits. For example, companies operating in designated zones sometimes also review the Form IT-604I instructions for the QEZE Tax Reduction Credit to see whether that program offers additional benefits. Businesses involved in site redevelopment or environmental cleanup projects may also want to look at the Form IT-611I instructions for the Brownfield Redevelopment Tax Credit, and larger industrial or manufacturing projects sometimes qualify under the Form IT-633I instructions for the Economic Transformation and Facility Redevelopment Program. Reviewing these together helps businesses figure out which combination of credits applies to their situation.

How to Get and Complete the Form

The official PDF is available directly from the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance website. Since it’s not digitally fillable, the practical approach is to print both the instructions and the IT-607 form itself, then work through the worksheets on paper before transferring final numbers onto the return. Keep the certificate of eligibility, job creation records, and investment documentation on hand while completing the form, since the instructions reference these documents at multiple points.

Because the Excelsior program involves multiple credit components with different calculation rules, it’s worth reading the full instruction booklet once before starting the worksheets rather than jumping straight into the numbers. This helps avoid having to redo calculations after realizing a particular component doesn’t apply or was calculated using the wrong base amount.