BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                  AB 1265
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   May 28, 2009

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                Kevin De Leon, Chair

                      AB 1265 (Ma) - As Amended:  May 21, 2009 

          Policy Committee:                              Revenue and  
          Taxation     Vote:                            9-0

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program:  
          No     Reimbursable:              

           SUMMARY  

          This bill allows disabled veteran itinerant vendors to pay sales  
          taxes on their wholesale purchases instead of having to collect  
          the tax on the retail sales made to their customers. The bill  
          does not apply to sales of alcohol, catering, or vending  
          machines, and it becomes inoperative on January 1, 2012.
           
          FISCAL EFFECT
           
          1)The Board of Equalization estimates that this bill would  
            reduce state and local revenues by $24,000 annually based on  
            its assumption that both the number of individuals meeting the  
            qualifications set forth by this bill - and the value and type  
            of goods sold by these individuals -  is quite small.

          2)The potential losses, however, could be significantly greater,  
            potentially in the range of several hundreds of thousands  
            annually, depending on the scope of products and value of  
            property, such as works-of-art, that could be eventually  
            exempted from the sales tax under this bill.
           
          COMMENTS

          1)Background  . The California sales tax is imposed on retail  
            sales of tangible personal property unless specifically  
            exempted. The tax is not normally applied to sales of  
            wholesalers to retailers, but rather is imposed on the  
            retailer at the point of final sale to its customers. 

            Current law allows about 15 entities that purchase products  
            for resale to be designated as "consumers," and not retailers,  








                                                                  AB 1265
                                                                  Page  2

            of certain tangible personal property that they purchase for  
            resale. These include certain items purchased by optometrists,  
            physicians, pharmacists, veterinarians, and others where the  
            sales are, to varying degrees, incidental to their main  
            businesses. For these entities, sales taxes are due when they  
            purchase the product from the wholesaler, instead of when they  
            resell the products to their customers. The benefit is that  
            these businesses and the Board of Equalization avoid the  
            recordkeeping and auditing burdens on an incidental amount of  
            sales. The cost to the state is that it loses the sales tax on  
            the mark up between the wholesale and retail price of the  
            products being sold.

            Under current law disabled veteran itinerant venders are  
            subject to the normal sales and use tax requirements, in that  
            their wholesale purchases are exempt and the tax is due at the  
            time they sell the products to their customers. Under this  
            bill, qualifying itinerant disabled veterans would be  
            considered consumers when they make wholesale purchases, and  
            thus would be relieved from collecting sales taxes and  
            maintaining records on their retail sales.

           2)Rationale  . This bill is intended to address the application of  
            the sales and use tax law to disabled veterans who make sales  
            of goods they own, such as food, handcrafted items, paintings,  
            memorabilia, and blankets. It is meant to acknowledge the  
            sacrifices that these individuals have made to our country and  
            to help remove recordkeeping burdens they face when attempting  
            to earn a living through itinerant vending sales. 

           3)Related legislation  . Several bills have been introduced this  
            year which provide "consumer status" to specified entities.  
            These include AB 659 (Hayashi), which provides consumer status  
            to certain dry cleaners, AB 1486 (Furutani), which extends  
            consumer status to certain nonprofit membership organizations,  
            and AB 676 (Jeffries) which extends the status to destination  
            management companies. 

           Analysis Prepared by  :    Brad Williams / APPR. / (916) 319-2081