BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    �



                                                                  AB 658
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          Date of Hearing:  January 9, 2012

                     ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON REVENUE AND TAXATION
                                Henry T. Perea, Chair

                   AB 658 (Calderon) - As Amended:  January 4, 2012

          Majority vote.  Fiscal committee.
           
          SUBJECT  :  State Board of Equalization: administration of taxes.

           SUMMARY  :  Corrects erroneous cross-references and makes other 
          non-substantive changes to specified provisions of the Cigarette 
          and Tobacco Products Tax Law.  

           EXISTING LAW  :

          1)Requires every person, retailer, and wholesaler engaged in 
            selling tangible personal property to remit the sales and use 
            tax to the Board of Equalization (BOE).  If a final tax 
            liability is not paid when due, the BOE bills the taxpayer, 
            searches for the taxpayer's assets, and takes collection 
            actions to gain access to assets to satisfy the debt.

          2)Authorizes BOE to accept and approve offers in compromise of a 
            final tax, surcharge or fee liability below certain amounts, 
            if certain requirements are satisfied.  �Sales and Use Tax Law 
            (Revenue and Taxation Code (R&TC) Section 7093.6), Use Fuel 
            Tax Law (R&TC Section 9278), Cigarette and Tobacco Products 
            Tax Law (R&TC Section 30459.15), Alcoholic Beverage Tax Law 
            (R&TC Section 32471.5), Emergency Telephone Users Surcharge 
            Act (R&TC Section 41171.5), Oil Spill Response, Prevention, 
            and Administration Fees Law (R&TC Section 46628), Underground 
            Storage Tank Maintenance Fee Law (R&TC Section 50156.18),  Fee 
            Collection Procedures Law (R&TC Section 55332.5), and Diesel 
            Fuel Tax Law (R&TC Section 60637].

          3)Extends the BOE's offers-in-compromise program, until January 
            1, 2013, to businesses that have not been discontinued or 
            transferred, provided that the final tax liability arises from 
            transactions in which the taxpayer did not receive sales tax 
            reimbursement or use tax, to successors of businesses that may 
            have inherited tax liabilities of their predecessors, and to 
            consumers that have incurred a use tax liability.  









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          4)Provides that, should the BOE determine that a taxpayer 
            concealed assets or falsified, withheld, destroyed, or 
            mutilated any book, document, or record relating to their 
            financial condition, the BOE may reestablish all compromised 
            liabilities and the taxpayer may be found guilty of a felony 
            and be may subject to a fine to $50,000, or imprisoned, or 
            both.

           FISCAL EFFECT :  None. 

           COMMENTS  :  In 2008, AB 2047 (Horton), Chapter 222, Statutes of 
          2008, amended the BOE's offers-in-compromise statutes to allow 
          the BOE to compromise, until January 1, 2013, certain final tax, 
          fee and surcharge liabilities of (a) businesses that are not 
          discontinued or transferred if the final tax liability arises 
          from transactions in which the taxpayer did not receive sales 
          tax reimbursement or use tax, (b) persons liable as successors, 
          or (c) consumers who incurred a use tax liability.  AB 2047 
          contained the duplicative wording "or cigarette or tobacco 
          products tax reimbursement" in subdivision (c)(3)(A) of R&TC 
          Section 30459.15, and made an incorrect reference in that 
          section to paragraph (2) of subdivision (c) throughout 
          subdivisions (c), (f), and (g).  In addition, AB 2047 added an 
          erroneous reference in R&TC Section 50156.18 to "Chapter 8 of 
          Article 2 (commencing with Section 50156)."  Finally, as a 
          result of a printing error, a part of the phrase in subdivision 
          (l)(2) of RT&C Section 55332.5 was inadvertently deleted.  This 
          bill would simply make non-substantive changes to R&TC Sections 
          30459.15 and 50156.18 in order to remove duplicative wording and 
          to correct erroneous references, and would add the missing 
          language to subdivision (l)(2) of R&TC Section 55332.5.

           REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION  :   

           Support 
           
          None on file

           Opposition 
           
          None on file
           
          Analysis Prepared by :  Oksana Jaffe / REV. & TAX. / (916) 
          319-2098 









                                                                  AB 658
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