BILL NUMBER: AB 2556	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  APRIL 15, 2010
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  APRIL 5, 2010

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Fuller

                        FEBRUARY 19, 2010

   An act to amend Section 6593.5 of the Revenue and Taxation Code,
relating to taxation.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 2556, as amended, Fuller. State Board of Equalization:
administration: interest waiver: foreign purchases.
   The Sales and Use Tax Law imposes 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. That
law exempts from use tax, the storage, use, or the consumption of the
first $800 of tangible personal property that is purchased in a
foreign  county   country  and hand-carried
into this state within a 30- day period. That law requires the
payment of interest at a specified rate on a failure to timely pay
taxes, from the date on which those amounts became due and payable to
the state until the date of payment. That law authorizes the State
Board of Equalization, in its discretion, to relieve all or any part
of interest imposed under specified circumstances.
   This bill would allow the  members of the  board  ,
meeting as a public body,  to relieve  , for a taxpayer, as
described,  all or any part of the interest imposed on the
failure to timely pay use tax on the storage, use, or other
consumption of tangible personal property, where the board discovered
the nonpayment as a result of obtaining information with respect to
the liability from  the  United States Customs Service, if
the tax is remitted within 90 days of notification by the board.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 6593.5 of the Revenue and Taxation Code is
amended to read:
   6593.5.  (a) The board, in its discretion, may relieve all or any
part of the interest imposed on a person by this part under the
following circumstances:
   (1) Where the failure to pay tax is due in whole or in part to an
unreasonable error or delay by an employee of the board acting in his
or her official capacity.
   (2) Where failure to pay use tax on a vehicle or vessel registered
with the Department of Motor Vehicles was the direct result of an
error by the Department of Motor Vehicles in calculating the use tax.

   (3)  (A)    Where use tax is remitted to the
board within 90 days of the board notifying  the taxpayer
  a person  of a nonpayment of use tax, which
notification is made as a result of the board obtaining information
with respect to the liability from the United States Customs Service.

   (B) This paragraph shall only apply to a person whose gross
receipts from business operations is less than two hundred fifty
thousand dollars ($250,000), or if the person has no business
operations, to a person whose gross adjusted income is less than two
hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000).  
   (C) For purposes of this paragraph, "board" means the members of
the State Board of Equalization meeting as a public body. 
   (b) For purposes of this section, an error or delay shall be
deemed to have occurred only if no significant aspect of the error or
delay is attributable to an act of, or a failure to act by, the
taxpayer.
   (c) Any person seeking relief under this section shall file with
the board a statement under penalty of perjury setting forth the
facts on which the claim for relief is based and any other
information which the board may require.
   (d) The board may grant relief only for interest imposed on tax
liabilities that arise during taxable periods commencing on or after
July 1, 1999.