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SB-542 Sales and use taxes: exemption: medium- or heavy-duty zero-emission trucks.(2021-2022)



Current Version: 06/22/22 - Amended Assembly

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SB542:v94#DOCUMENT

Amended  IN  Assembly  June 22, 2022
Amended  IN  Senate  May 25, 2021
Amended  IN  Senate  May 03, 2021
Amended  IN  Senate  April 20, 2021
Amended  IN  Senate  March 25, 2021

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2021–2022 REGULAR SESSION

Senate Bill
No. 542


Introduced by Senator Limón
(Coauthors: Senators Cortese, Dodd, and Newman)

February 18, 2021


An act to add and repeal Section 6377.2 of the Revenue and Taxation Code, relating to taxation, to take effect immediately, tax levy.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


SB 542, as amended, Limón. Sales and use taxes: exemption: medium- or heavy-duty zero-emission trucks.
Existing sales and use tax laws impose taxes on retailers measured by 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, measured by sales price. The Sales and Use Tax Law provides various exemptions from those taxes.
Existing law establishes the State Air Resources Board as the state agency responsible for monitoring and regulating sources emitting greenhouse gases. The State Air Resources Board, in this capacity, administers the California Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project under which the agency issues a limited number of vouchers to incentivize the purchase and use of zero-emission commercial vehicles.
This bill would provide an exemption from those sales and use taxes with respect to the sale in this state of, and the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of, a qualified motor vehicle. The bill would define “qualified motor vehicle” as as, among other things, a specified new zero-emission truck. truck that is eligible for a project voucher. The bill would would, however, disallow the exemption for from a sales or uses made on or after January 1, 2025, if the purchaser also received other specified benefits. use tax where the vehicle purchase was made using a voucher issued by the State Air Resources Board pursuant to the California Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project. The bill would provide that this the tax exemption does not apply to specified state sales and use taxes from which the proceeds are deposited into the Local Revenue Fund, the Local Revenue Fund 2011, or the Local Public Safety Fund. The bill would provide that the exemption would apply to otherwise eligible sales and uses of a vehicle where the internet website of the State Air Resources Board indicates a vehicle is eligible for the voucher program at the time the purchase is made, notwithstanding a contrary determination made by the State Air Resources Board. The bill would require the State Air Resources Board to indicate the date on which it updates its internet website to reflect changes in the eligibility of a vehicle under the voucher project. The bill would provide that the exemption is to become operative on April 1, 2023.
The Bradley-Burns Uniform Local Sales and Use Tax Law authorizes counties and cities to impose local sales and use taxes in conformity with the Sales and Use Tax Law, and existing laws authorize districts, as specified, to impose transactions and use taxes in accordance with the Transactions and Use Tax Law, which generally conforms to the Sales and Use Tax Law. Amendments to the Sales and Use Tax Law are automatically incorporated into the local tax laws.
This bill would specify that this exemption does not apply to local sales and use taxes or transactions and use taxes.
The bill would provide that the above-described exemption shall become inoperative on January 1, 2027, April 1, 2028, and as of that date is repealed.
Existing law requires a bill that would authorize a new tax expenditure under the Sales and Use Tax Law to identify specific goals, purposes, and objectives that the tax expenditure will achieve, and detailed performance indicators and data collection requirements for determining whether the tax expenditure achieves these goals, purposes, and objectives.
This bill would make findings specifying the goal, purpose, and objective of the sales and use tax exemption provided by this bill and the performance indicator to be used, and would require, on or before January 1, 2023, the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration to provide a report to the Assembly Committee on Revenue and Taxation and the Senate Committee on Governance and Finance on the use of the tax exemption.
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.

 Section 6377.2 is added to the Revenue and Taxation Code, to read:

6377.2.
 (a) There are exempted from the taxes imposed by this part the gross receipts from the sale in this state of, and the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of, a qualified motor vehicle.
(b) For purposes of this section, “qualified motor vehicle” means a vehicle that is both satisfies all of the following:
(1) A Is a truck model that is eligible for the California Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project funded by the Air Quality Improvement Program and the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund under the State Air Resources Board.
(2) A Is a truck with a gross vehicle weight rating, as that term is defined in Section 350 of the Vehicle Code, of more than eight thousand five hundred (8,500) pounds that is a zero-emission vehicle as that term is defined in subdivision (d) of Section 44258 of the Health and Safety Code.

(c)For sales or uses made on or after January 1, 2025, the exemption provided under subdivision (a) shall not apply if the purchaser received a voucher through the California Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project.

(3) The purchase of the vehicle was not made using a voucher through the California Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project.
(4) Is a new vehicle, as that term is defined in Section 430 of the Vehicle Code.
(c) (1) If, at the time a sale is made, the State Air Resources Board’s internet website indicates that the vehicle is eligible for the California Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project, and all other criteria in subdivision (b) are satisfied, the taxes imposed by this part shall not apply to the sale, storage, use, or other consumption of the vehicle, notwithstanding a determination by the State Air Resources Board that the vehicle is no longer eligible for the California Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Project.
(2) If the State Air Resources Board updates its internet website to remove a vehicle from the list of vehicles eligible for a voucher under the California Hybrid Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project, the board shall indicate the date on which this update to its internet website was made.
(d) (1) Notwithstanding any provision of the Bradley-Burns Uniform Local Sales and Use Tax Law (Part 1.5 (commencing with Section 7200)) or the Transactions and Use Tax Law (Part 1.6 (commencing with Section 7251)), the exemption established by subdivision (a) does not apply with respect to any tax levied by a county, city, or district pursuant to, or in accordance with, either of those laws.
(2) Notwithstanding subdivision (a), the exemption established by this section shall not apply with respect to any tax levied pursuant to Section 6051.2 or 6201.2, pursuant to Section 35 of Article XIII of the California Constitution, or any tax levied pursuant to Section 6051 or 6201 that is deposited in the State Treasury to the credit of the Local Revenue Fund 2011 pursuant to Section 6051.15 or 6201.15.
(e) This section shall become operative on April 1, 2023.

(e)

(f) This section shall become inoperative on January 1, 2027, April 1, 2028, and as of that date is repealed.

SEC. 2.

 (a) For the purposes of complying with Section 41 of the Revenue and Taxation Code, the Legislature finds and declares the following:
(1) The goal, purpose, or objective of the tax expenditure authorized by Section 6377.2 of the Revenue and Taxation Code, hereafter “tax exemption,” is to meet the ambitious goals set by Governor Newsom in Executive Order N-79-20 to transition all medium- and heavy-duty trucks in California to zero-emission vehicles in the next 15 to 25 years.
(2) The performance indicator for the Legislature to use when measuring whether the tax exemption meets the goal, purpose, or objective specified in paragraph (1) is the number of sales made that qualified for the tax exemption.
(b) On or before January 1, 2023, 2025, and annually thereafter until January 1, 2029, the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration shall provide a report to the Assembly Committee on Revenue and Taxation and the Senate Committee on Governance and Finance on the use of the tax exemption. The report shall be provided in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government Code.

SEC. 3.

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