Entitlement period, defined

(1) Entitlement period is ten years, meaning the year during which the required increases in employment and investment were met or exceeded or that meets the conditions in subsection (2) of this section and the next one hundred eight months.

(2) Solely for the purpose of determining the first year of the entitlement period, if before the end of a year a company has reached the required level of new investment and has created the number of new jobs at the project equal to at least the applicable required level of new employment, but has not yet reached the required number of new employees because such employees have not been employed at the project yet for a full year, then the company may elect on its tax return for such year to be considered to have met the required levels of employment and investment during such year.