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.