The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law allow individual and corporate taxpayers to utilize net operating losses and carryovers and carrybacks of those losses for purposes of offsetting their individual and corporate tax liabilities. Existing law, for net operating losses incurred in taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2008, provides a carryover period of 20 years and allows net operating losses attributable to taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2013, to be carrybacks to each of the preceding 2 taxable years, as provided. Existing law disallows the deduction for net operating losses and net operating loss carryovers in the 2008 to 2011, inclusive, taxable years for a taxpayer with over a specified amount of business income and extends the carryover period for those net operating losses, thus allowing the taxpayer to have the same number of years to utilize the deduction as the taxpayer would have had if the disallowance for those taxable years had not occurred.

Existing law disallows net operating loss carrybacks for any net operating losses attributable to taxable years beginning before January 1, 2013, but would allow net operating losses attributable to taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2013, to be carrybacks to each of the preceding 2 taxable years, as provided.

This bill would authorize a taxpayer to make an election to claim a deduction for any losses sustained in the County of Santa Cruz as a result of the severe storms that occurred in March 2011 on the tax return for the preceding year, as provided. This bill would provide that any provision of law that suspends, defers, reduces, or otherwise diminishes the deduction of a net operating loss does not apply to a net operating loss attributable to those severe storms that occurred in March 2011 in the County of Santa Cruz.

This bill would make a legislative finding and declaration relating to the statewide public purpose served by the bill.

This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.