BILL NUMBER: AB 1351 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Logue
FEBRUARY 18, 2011
An act to amend Section 50113.1 of the Revenue and Taxation Code,
relating to underground storage tanks.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 1351, as introduced, Logue. Underground storage tanks: fees:
deficiency determinations.
Existing law requires the owner or operator of an underground
petroleum storage tank, or other responsible party, to pay a
specified maintenance fee for each gallon of petroleum placed in an
underground storage tank that he or she owns, and to take corrective
action, as defined, in response to an unauthorized release of
petroleum from the tank. Existing law, the Underground Storage Tank
Maintenance Fee Law requires that the State Board of Equalization
administer and collect those underground storage tank fees and
prescribes procedures for the administration and collection of those
fees. Existing law authorizes the board, if it is dissatisfied with a
specified report file or the amount of fee paid to the board under
those provisions, or if no report has been filed or no payment or
payments of fees have been made to the state by any fee payer, to
compute and determine the amount of fees to be paid, based on any
information available to it. In the case of the failure to make a
related report or return, existing law requires every notice of
determination of an amount due to be given within 8 years after the
date that the report or return was due.
This bill would require, if the board finds that the person who
currently owns an underground storage tank failed to make a report or
return because he or she was a qualified absentee owner of an
underground storage tank, the notice of determination to be mailed
within 3 years after the date the amount was required to have been
paid or the report was due. The bill would require, if the board
finds that the person does not currently own the underground storage
tank and failed to make a report or return because he or she was a
qualified absentee owner of an underground storage tank, the notice
of determination to be mailed within 8 years after the amount was
required to have been paid or the report or return was due, but would
require the notice of determination to include only amounts due that
arose during the owner's final 3 years of owning the underground
storage tank. The bill would define the term "qualified absentee
owner" for purposes of those provisions.
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 50113.1 of the Revenue and Taxation Code is
amended to read:
50113.1. (a) Except in the case of fraud,
intent to evade this part , or the
rules and regulations adopted pursuant to this part, or failure to
make a report or return, every notice of a determination of an
additional amount due shall be given within three years after the
date when the amount was required to have been paid or the report or
return was due, or within three years after the report or return was
filed, whichever period expires later. In the
(b) Except as provided in subdivision
(c), in the case of failure to make a report or return, the
notice of determination shall be mailed within eight years after the
date the report or return was due.
(c) Notwithstanding subdivision (b), either of the following shall
apply:
(1) If the board finds that the person owns the underground
storage tank and failed to make a report or return because he or she
was a qualified absentee owner of the underground storage tank, the
notice of determination shall be mailed within three years after the
date the amount was required to have been paid or the report or
return was due.
(2) If the board finds that the person does not own the
underground storage tank and failed to make a report or return
because he or she was a qualified absentee owner of the underground
storage tank at the time the report or return was due, the notice of
determination shall be mailed within eight years after the date the
amount was required to have been paid or the report or return was
due, but the notice of determination shall only include amounts due
that arose during the owner's final three years of underground
storage tank ownership.
(3) For purposes of this section, "qualified absentee owner" means
the owner of an underground storage tank at the time the report or
return was due who meets all of the following criteria:
(A) The owner was not the operator, as defined by Section 25299.20
of the Health and Safety Code, of the underground storage tank
system.
(B) The owner had no ownership interest in the person who was the
operator of the underground storage tank system.
(C) The owner establishes that he or she did not know of, and
could not have reasonably known of, the requirement to register with
the board as an owner of an underground storage tank.
(D) (i) The board did not have contact with the owner of the
underground storage tank regarding the requirement that the owner
register with the board prior to the relevant time period described
in paragraph (1) or (2).
(ii) If the board did have contact with the owner of the
underground storage tank prior to the relevant time period described
in paragraph (1) or (2), the owner is liable for the fee for the
period beginning on the date of that contact to the date the notice
of determination was mailed.
(d) (1) If the notice of determination was mailed pursuant to
subdivision (b), paragraphs (1) and (2) of subdivision (c) shall only
apply to that notice of determination if it was issued on or after
January 1, 2012.
(2) If the notice of determination was not mailed pursuant to
subdivision (b), paragraphs (1) and (2) of subdivision (c) shall only
apply if either of the following occurs on or after January 1, 2012:
(A) First contact is made between the board and the owner.
(B) The board mails returns to the owner for the periods during
which, up to eight years, the owner owned the underground storage
tank.