SB 92 — Taxation.

Summary

(1) Existing law establishes the Office of Tax Appeals in state government. The office has the duty to conduct appeals hearings for the various taxes and fees administered by the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration and for the administrative appeals of state personal income taxes and corporation franchise and income taxes, which are administered by the Franchise Tax Board. Existing law establishes tax appeals panels within the office, each consisting of 3 administrative law judges. This bill, until January 1, 2030, would require the office to establish a process under which a person filing an appeal may opt to appear before one administrative law judge, rather than a tax appeal panel, when the total amount in dispute, including penalties and fees, is less than $5,000 with respect to personal income taxes, fees, or penalties, or the entity filing the appeal has gross receipts of less than $20,000,000 with respect to taxes, fees, and penalties administered by the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration and the total amount in dispute, including penalties and fees, is less than $50,000. The bill would provide that the decision of one administrative law judge made pursuant to these provisions does not have precedential effect. (2) Existing state sales and use tax laws impose a tax on retailers measured by the gross receipts from the sale of tangible personal property sold at retail in this state or on the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of tangible personal property purchased from a retailer for storage, use, or other consumption in this state. The Sales and Use Tax Law provides various exemptions from those taxes. (A) Existing law requires a portion of the sales and use tax law revenues to be deposited in the State Treasury to the credit of the Local Revenue Fund 2011, a continuously appropriated fund, to be used for public safety purposes. If specified sales and use taxes are reduced or cease to be operative, existing law requires the state to annually provide moneys to the fund in an amount equal to or greater than the aggregate amount that would have otherwise been provided by those taxes, as specified. This bill, on and after January 1, 2020, until January 1, 2022, would exempt from those taxes the gross receipts from the sale in this state of, and the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of, diapers for infants, toddlers, and children, and menstrual hygiene products, defined as tampons, specified sanitary napkins, menstrual sponges, and menstrual cups. The bill would require the Department of Finance, beginning on May 15, 2020, to estimate the total dollar amount of revenue that would have been credited to the Local Revenue Fund 2011 if not otherwise exempted by this act, and would require the Controller to transfer that amount from the General Fund to the Local Revenue Fund 2011 no later than June 30 of each fiscal year. By requiring specified General Fund moneys to be transferred into a continuously appropriated fund, the bill would make an appropriation. (B) The Sales and Use Tax Law requires every person desiring to engage in or conduct business as a seller within this state to file with the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration an application for a permit for each place of business and requires every retailer selling tangible personal property for storage, use, or other consumption in this state to register with the department. Within the Sales and Use Tax Law, the Marketplace Facilitator Act, on and after October 1, 2019, provides that a marketplace facilitator, as defined, is considered the seller and retailer for each sale facilitated through its marketplace, as defined, for purposes of determining whether that marketplace facilitator is required to register with the department under the Sales and Use Tax Law. Existing law provides that any marketplace facilitator that is registered or required to register with the department under the Sales and Use Tax law and that facilitates a retail sale of tangible personal property by a marketplace seller, as defined, is the retailer selling or making the sale of the tangible personal property sold through its marketplace for purposes of paying any sales taxes and collecting any use taxes. Existing law exempts a person that is a delivery network company, as defined, from the definition of a marketplace facilitator and excludes certain actions taken by newspapers, internet websites, and other entities from the act of facilitating a sale as a marketplace facilitator. This bill would allow a delivery network company to elect to be deemed a marketplace facilitator, as specified. The bill would revise those actions taken by newspapers, internet websites, and other entities that are excluded from the act of facilitating a sale as a marketplace facilitator. (C) The Sales and Use Tax Law requires, for purposes of the sales tax, a tax return to be filed by every seller and, for purposes of the use tax, a tax return to be filed by every retailer engaged in business in this state. Under that law, if any person fails to make a return, the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration is required to make a deficiency determination based on an estimate of the amount of the gross receipts of the person, or, as the case may be, of the amount of the total sales price of tangible personal property sold by the person, the storage, use, or other consumption of which in this state is subject to the use tax. Under that law, if a retailer fails to file a return, the department is authorized to issue a notice of deficiency determination for a period of 8 years, as specified. The Sales and Use Tax Law also imposes various penalties, including a penalty for failure to make a return and pay taxes when that failure results in the department's issuance of a deficiency determination. This bill would limit the issuance of a deficiency determination to a "qualifying retailer" to only those liabilities arising under the Sales and Use Tax Law for sales made on and after April 1, 2016. The bill would define a "qualifying retailer" to mean, among other things, a retailer that is or was engaged in business in this state solely because the retailer used a marketplace facilitator to facilitate sales for delivery in this state and for which the marketplace facilitator stored the retailer's inventory in this state. The bill would relieve a qualifying retailer of the penalties imposed pursuant to the Sales and Use Tax Law with respect to sales made from April 1, 2016, to March 31, 2019, inclusive. The bill would make a legislative finding and declaration that the bill serves a public purpose and does not constitute a prohibited gift of public funds. (3) Existing laws authorize districts, as specified, to impose transactions and use taxes by adopting district transactions and use ordinances in accordance with the Transactions and Use Tax Law, which generally conforms to the Sales and Use Tax Law. Existing law requires districts that impose district use taxes in accordance with the Transactions and Use Tax Law to include a provision in the district's use tax ordinance, to be operative on April 1, 2019, that provides that a retailer engaged in business in the district includes any retailer that, in the preceding calendar year or the current calendar year, has total combined sales of tangible personal property in the state or for delivery in the state by the retailer and all persons related to the retailer that exceeds $500,000, thereby requiring those retailers to collect those district use taxes. This bill would instead specify that those added district use tax ordinance provisions are operative on April 25, 2019. (4) This bill would make other nonsubstantive changes. (5) The Bradley-Burns Uniform Local Sales and Use Tax Law authorizes counties and cities to impose local sales and use taxes in conformity with the Sales and Use Tax Law, and existing laws authorize districts, as specified, to impose transactions and use taxes in accordance with the Transactions and Use Tax Law, which generally conforms to the Sales and Use Tax Law. Amendments to the Sales and Use Tax Law are automatically incorporated into the local tax laws. Existing law requires the state to reimburse counties and cities for revenue losses caused by the enactment of sales and use tax exemptions. This bill would provide that, notwithstanding Section 2230 of the Revenue and Taxation Code, no appropriation is made by this act for the purposes of Section 2230 of the Revenue and Taxation Code and the state shall not reimburse any local agencies for sales and use tax revenues lost by them pursuant to this bill. (6) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.

Bill Text

• Chaptered 06/27/19 - Chaptered Current pdf June 27, 2019
• Enrolled 06/19/19 - Enrolled pdf June 19, 2019
• Amended 06/11/19 - Amended Assembly pdf June 11, 2019
• Introduced 01/10/19 - Introduced pdf January 10, 2019
• SB92 View text html

Action History

1. June 27, 2019

   Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 34, Statutes of 2019.

2. June 27, 2019

   Approved by the Governor.

3. June 25, 2019

   Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 10 a.m.

4. June 17, 2019

   Assembly amendments concurred in. (Ayes 40. Noes 0. Page 1600.) Ordered to engrossing and enrolling.

5. June 17, 2019

   In Senate. Concurrence in Assembly amendments pending.

6. June 17, 2019

   Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 76. Noes 0. Page 2306.) Ordered to the Senate.

7. June 17, 2019

   Assembly Rule 63 and 96 suspended. (Ayes 59. Noes 12. Page 2297.)

8. June 17, 2019

   Ordered to third reading.

9. June 17, 2019

   Withdrawn from committee.

10. June 11, 2019

    From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on BUDGET.

11. May 02, 2019

    Referred to Com. on BUDGET.

12. April 11, 2019

    In Assembly. Read first time. Held at Desk.

13. April 11, 2019

    Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 27. Noes 9. Page 668.) Ordered to the Assembly.

14. April 09, 2019

    Read second time. Ordered to third reading.

15. April 08, 2019

    Ordered to second reading.

16. April 08, 2019

    Withdrawn from committee. (Ayes 28. Noes 10. Page 582.)

17. January 24, 2019

    Referred to Com. on B. & F.R.

18. January 11, 2019

    From printer. May be acted upon on or after February 10.

19. January 10, 2019

    Introduced. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. To print.

Sponsors

• Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review · Primary

Votes

Subjects