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SB-1462 Personal income taxes: credits: surviving spouses of military veterans.(2001-2002)

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Amended  IN  Senate  April 17, 2002
Amended  IN  Senate  May 09, 2002

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2001–2002 REGULAR SESSION

Senate Bill
No. 1462

Introduced  by  Senator Morrow
 (Principal Coauthor(s): Assembly Member Chavez)
 (Coauthor(s): Senator Haynes, Knight, Margett, Monteith)
 (Coauthor(s): Assembly Member Aanestad, Ashburn, Bogh, Briggs, Bill Campbell, Cogdill, Cohn, Cox, Hollingsworth, La Suer, Leach, Robert Pacheco, Rod Pacheco, Strickland, Wyland, Wyman, Zettel)

February 15, 2002

An act to add and repeal Section 17052.1 of the Revenue and Taxation Code, relating to taxation, to take effect immediately, tax levy.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


SB 1462, as amended, Morrow. Personal income taxes: credits: surviving spouses of military veterans.
The Personal Income Tax Law authorizes various credits against the taxes imposed by that law.
This bill would authorize a credit against those taxes for each taxable year beginning on or after January 1, 2002, and ending on or before January 1, 2005, in the amount of $50 for a qualified surviving spouse of a military retiree, as defined, who receives federal military survivors benefits.
This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: NO  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 (a) The Legislature of the State of California finds and declares all of the following:
(1) The federal government has established military survivors benefits programs for the spouses and children of military retirees.
(2) Military retirees receive a reduced salary pension if they make an election to provide for their survivors after their death.
(3) When a surviving spouse of a military retiree attains 62 years of age, his or her survivor payments are reduced from 55 percent of his or her spouse’s base pay to 35 percent of his or her spouse’s base pay.
(4) This reduction is based on the assumption that the surviving spouse will receive social security benefits when that surviving spouse reaches 62 years of age. However, under current federal law, an individual who applies for social security benefits prior to attaining 65 years of age may not receive his or her full social security benefit amount.
(5) This assumption, as followed in the administration of existing military survivors benefits programs, unfairly penalizes surviving spouses by reducing their pension income under circumstances where there may not be a corresponding increase in the social security benefit amount received by the surviving spouse.
(6) Various associations representing military retirees and surviving spouses of military retirees have attempted, to no avail, to convince Congress to remedy this inequitable practice.
(b) Accordingly, the Legislature finds and declares that it is in the best interests of this state to provide a small measure of relief in the form of a fifty dollar ($50) credit against the personal income tax liability of the surviving spouses of military retirees who have attained 62 years of age and who are beneficiaries of a military survivors benefits program.

SEC. 2.

 Section 17052.1 is added to the Revenue and Taxation Code, to read:

17052.1.
 (a) For each taxable year beginning on or after January 1, 2002, and ending on or before January 1, 2005, there shall be allowed a credit against the “net tax,” as defined in Section 17039, in the amount of fifty dollars ($50) for a qualified surviving spouse of a military retiree who receives federal military survivors benefits.
(b) For purposes of this section, “qualified surviving spouse” means an individual who is a widow or widower of a military retiree, who has attained 62 years of age at the end of the taxable year, and whose adjusted gross income, as defined in Section 17072, in the case of an individual, does not exceed thirty thousand dollars ($30,000) or, in the case of a married person, does not exceed sixty thousand dollars ($60,000). retiree that has not remarried, who, at the end of the taxable year is between the ages of 62 and 65 years old, and whose adjusted gross income, as defined in Section 17072, does not exceed thirty thousand dollars ($30,000).
(c) In the case where the credit allowed by this section exceeds the “net tax,” the excess may be carried over to reduce the “net tax” in the following year, and succeeding years if necessary, until the credit is exhausted. five years.
(d) This section shall remain in effect only until December 1, 2005, and as of that date is repealed.

SEC. 3.

 This act provides for a tax levy within the meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into immediate effect.