BILL NUMBER: AB 755 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 13, 2015
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 14, 2015
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Ridley-Thomas
FEBRUARY 25, 2015
An act to add and repeal Section 6362 to the Revenue
and Taxation Code, relating to taxation, to take effect immediately,
tax levy.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 755, as amended, Ridley-Thomas. Sales and use taxes: exemption:
small businesses: Los Angeles County transit projects.
Existing sales and use tax laws impose taxes 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,
and provides various exemptions from the taxes imposed by those
laws.
Existing law creates the Los Angeles County Metropolitan
Transportation Authority (LACMTA) with specified powers and duties
relative to transportation planning, programming, and operations in
the County Los Angeles.
This bill would partially exempt from those taxes the gross
receipts from the sale of, and the storage, use, or other consumption
of, tangible personal property sold by, or purchased from, a
retailer that is a small business, as defined, and whose property
line abuts or faces the rail corridor or a designated construction
staging or construction storage area of the Crenshaw/LAX Transit
Corridor Light Rail Line, the Regional Connector Transit Corridor
Light Rail Line, or the Westside Subway Extension Light Rail Line, as
specified. The bill would require a small business to provide a
written certification to the Board of Equalization that it has
suffered a negative financial impact during construction of those
rail lines in order to receive the partial exemption, as provided.
The bill would also make related findings and
declarations in this regard. declarations.
This bill would require the LACMTA to notify the board of the
date construction ends for each project. To the extent the bill would
require the LACMTA to report to the board regarding the completion
of construction, the bill would impose a state-mandated local
program.
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 law authorizes
districts, as specified, to impose transactions and use taxes in
accordance with the Transactions and Use Tax Law, which conforms
generally to the Sales and Use Tax Law. Exemptions from state sales
and use taxes are incorporated into these laws.
This bill would specify that this exemption does not apply to
local sales and use taxes and transactions and use taxes.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local
agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the
state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that
reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this
act for a specified reason.
This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy. However,
the provisions of this act shall become operative on January 1, 2016.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no yes .
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
(a) The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority
is currently engaged in the largest public transit expansion in the
country.
(b) This expansion will fundamentally transform the County of Los
Angeles and will have significant long-term economic benefits.
(c) The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority
is currently constructing three future rail transit lines known as
the Crenshaw/LAX Transit Corridor Light Rail Line, the Regional
Connector, and the Westside Subway Extension.
(d) The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority
has adopted a Locally Preferred Alternative for these projects, which
describe the route alignment of the projects, including station
locations.
(e) While these projects will create long-term economic benefits
for the local communities and the County of Los Angeles as a whole,
there will be temporary impacts to the local communities from the
construction of these projects.
(f) It is incumbent upon the state to partner with the Los Angeles
County Metropolitan Transportation Authority and assist it in
mitigating these short term impacts by providing tax relief to small
businesses affected by the construction of these light rail lines.
SEC. 2. Section 6362 is added to the Revenue and Taxation Code, to
read:
6362. (a) (1) During the period in which
each project is under construction, there are exempted from the taxes
imposed by this part, the gross receipts from the sale of, and the
storage, use, or other consumption in this state of, tangible
personal property sold by, or purchased from, a retailer that is a
small business and whose property line abuts or faces the rail
corridor or a designated construction staging or construction storage
area, including a small business located in a mall or strip-mall
that is similarly situated, of the Crenshaw/LAX Transit Corridor
Light Rail Line, the Regional Connector Transit Corridor Light Rail
Line, or the Westside Subway Extension Light Rail Line selected as
the Locally Preferred Alternative, as described in the Final
Environmental Impact Statement/Environmental Impact Report for each
project, and as approved by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan
Transportation Authority.
(2) The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority
shall notify the board of the date construction ends for each project
and shall notify the board of the date construction ends for the
last project.
(b) For the purposes of this section, the following shall apply:
(1) "Project" means the Crenshaw/LAX Transit Corridor Light Rail
Line, the Regional Connector Transit Corridor Light Rail Line, and
the Westside Subway Extension Light Rail Line as described in this
section.
(2) "Small business" shall mean a retailer that remitted to the
board less than two hundred thousand dollars ($200,000) in tax for
the previous four calendar quarters.
(3) "Small business" also means a retailer that has been in
operation for less than four calendar quarters and remitted less than
an average of fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) in tax for each
calendar quarter of operation.
(c) (1) An exemption shall not be allowed under this section
unless a small business demonstrates that it has suffered a negative
financial impact as a result of a project that abuts or faces the
rail corridor or a designated construction staging or construction
storage area of that small business during the period the project is
under construction.
(2) A small business shall provide to the board a written
certification, along with evidence in support of that certification,
that it has suffered a negative financial impact by a project.
Evidence of a negative financial impact shall include, but not be
limited to, financial records that show a loss of business revenue
during the period a project is under construction.
(c)
(d) (1) Notwithstanding any provision of the
Bradley-Burns Uniform Local Sales and Use Tax Law (Part 1.5
(commencing with Section 7200)) or the Transactions and Use Tax Law
(Part 1.6 (commencing with Section 7251)), the exemption established
by this section does not apply with respect to any tax levied by a
county, city, or district pursuant to, or in accordance with, either
of those laws.
(2) Notwithstanding subdivision (a), the exemption established by
this section shall not apply with respect to any tax levied pursuant
to Section 6051.2, 6051.5, 6201.2, or 6201.5, pursuant to Section 35
and Subdivision subdivision (f) of
Section 36 of Article XIII of the California Constitution, or any tax
levied pursuant to Section 6051 or 6201 that is deposited in the
State Treasury to the credit of the Local Revenue Fund 2011 pursuant
to Section 6051.15 or 6201.15.
(e) This section shall cease to be operative on the last day of
the calendar month following, or 14 days after, the date construction
ends for the last project, pursuant to the notification in paragraph
(2) of subdivision (a), whichever is later.
SEC. 3. No reimbursement is required by this act
pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California
Constitution because the only costs that may be incurred by a local
agency or school district are the result of a program for which
legislative authority was requested by that local agency or school
district, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code
and Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution.
SEC. 3. SEC. 4. This act provides
for a tax levy within the meaning of Article IV of the Constitution
and shall go into immediate effect. However, the provisions of this
act shall become operative on January 1, 2016.