CSTC works closely with a Legislative Consultant to keep an eye on important bills that would affect taxpayers and small business owners.

NEWS AND UPDATES IN BRIEF

  • Legislators who introduced placeholder bills must have added the full language to their bills by mid-March, or they will not move forward. There are a few remaining placeholder bills noted below that are not yet officially dead, so they remain on this report.
  • Of note: Not summarized below but for your information are a few bills that seek to provide an income exclusion for taxpayers for amounts received for costs and losses associated with wildfires or natural disasters (AB 294) or for specific past wildfires such as the 2020 Zogg Fire in Shasta County (SB 542) and the 2019 Kincade Fire in Sonoma County (SB 370).

READING THIS REPORT

Bills greyed out are no longer moving forward, were amended significantly and are no longer relevant, or have been signed into law. They will not be tracked any longer unless so requested.

As a reminder, many tax-related bills would, if signed into law, take effect immediately rather than on January 1, 2024. And some require a 2/3, rather than a majority, vote to pass.


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BILLS OF INTEREST | TAX FOCUS

AB 14 (Davies) |Personal Income Tax: credit: childcare costs. A former placeholder bill was amended to provide additional credit for taxpayers who qualify for the existing Federal child and dependent care expense credit.
Status: In the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee

AB 17 (Alanis) | Personal Income Tax: rate. A former placeholder bill was amended to revise the income tax rates and taxable income brackets by imposing an income tax rate of 4% instead of 6% or 8% between 2023 and 2028.
Status: In the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee

AB 26 (Mike Fong) | Personal Income Tax Law: exclusion: federal student loan debt relief plan. Excludes from a person’s gross income any amount of qualified student loan debt discharged under the federal student loan debt relief plan. This bill only becomes operatives upon the enactment of legislation that would conform to federal law.
Status: Referred to the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee

New | AB 35 (Committee on Budget) | Personal Income Tax Law: exclusion: student loan debt. Would exclude from an individual’s gross income, from 2021 through 2026, the amount of certain student loans discharged in conformity with federal law.
Status: In the Assembly Committee on Budget

AB 59 (Gallagher) |Taxation: renter’s credit. This bill increases, contingent upon an appropriation in the Budget Act, the number of taxpayers that qualify for the Renter's Credit by expanding qualifying income limits; also makes the credit refundable upon appropriation. The Franchise Tax Board anticipates significant costs associated with the bill and notes that “implementing this bill would require robust changes to existing information, processing systems, tax forms, and instructions, as well as providing taxpayer outreach.”
Status: In the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee

AB 84 (Ward) | Property tax: welfare exemption: affordable housing. Allows property owners to receive the welfare property tax exemption at the time of purchase for land developed and used for low-income housing.
Status: In the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee

AB 259 (Lee) | Wealth Tax: False Claims Act. Establishes the Wealth Tax Advisory Council; imposes an annual tax at a rate of 1.5% of a resident’s “worldwide net worth” in excess of $1,000,000,000, or in excess of $500,000,000 in the case of a married taxpayer filing separately; allows the taxation of former residents who relocated to other states; any related provisions. A similar bill failed.
Status: Not yet assigned to a committee. NOTE: CalChamber tagged AB 259 as a “job killer bill” and, as noted in the last report, the Governor has issued harsh comments. As the bill has not been referred to a committee, it’s possible it will not get off the ground.

AB 441 (Haney) | Credit: young child tax credit: foster youth tax credit: periodic payments. A former placeholder bill that now requires the Franchise Tax Board to establish a program for making periodic payments from the Tax Relief and Refund Account to those eligible to receive an earned income tax credit, a young child tax credit, or a foster youth tax credit.
Status: In the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee

New | AB 514 (Patterson)| Personal Income Tax Law: retired police dogs: tax credit. Allows a refundable credit of $1,500 for a taxpayer that has adopted retired police dogs. 
Status: In the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee

AB 769 (Bauer-Kahan) | Personal Income Tax Law: Corporation Tax Law: credits: carbon reduction. This bill would give businesses that meet certain standards a credit against their taxes. These businesses must have emissions levels of criteria air pollutants (like smog) at least 5% below what is required by the federal Clean Air Act. The credit amount would be equal to $800 per ton of pollutants reduced beyond the baseline amount.
Status: Referred to the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee

AB 877 (Addis) | Income taxes: credit: lodging for displaced persons. Would create the “The Good Neighbor Tax Credit” to allow businesses such as hotels and motels to receive a tax credit when they offer free overnight stays to displaced persons during a state of emergency. The amount of the credit would be equal to the cost of the overnight stay times the number of nights occupied, subject to a maximum amount per room.
Status: In the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee

AB 1026 (Ta) |Personal income taxes: deduction: California qualified tuition program. Would allow a deduction against gross income for contributions to the California-qualified tuition program established by the Golden State Scholarshare Trust Act.
Status: Referred to the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee

AB 1066 (Patterson) |Personal income taxes: rates. A placeholder bill related to personal income taxes.
Status: Not yet assigned to a committee

 AB 1105 (Petrie-Norris) | Personal Income Tax Law: Corporation Tax Law: sale of net operating losses. Would allow a startup innovator to sell a net operating loss to an unrelated taxpayer.
Article explaining the bill here.
Status: In the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee

AB 1128 (Santiago) | Personal Income Tax Law: young child tax credit: qualifying child. This bill would make payments from the Tax Relief and Refund Account to those with an eligible income, meaning those who have qualifying children who meet certain criteria. It would also remove the requirement that a qualifying child has to be younger than 6 as of the last day of the taxable year and it provides the option to receive advanced and periodic payments for both the California Earned Income Tax Credit and the Young Child Tax Credit, as well as give assurance that these payments would not be considered income for determination of eligibility for public assistance programs.
Status: Referred to the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee
Related media: Renewed push to extend child tax credits in California,” “State Assembly Bill Introduced to Expand Child Tax Credit Eligibility,” Author’s press release

AB 1397 (Low) | Taxation: penalties. A placeholder bill with the intention of enacting legislation relating to the review and revision of the Tax Code to ensure penalties are commensurate to code violations.
Status: Not yet assigned to a committee

AB 1400 (Bryan) | College Access Tax Credit Fund. A placeholder bill related to the College Access Tax Credit Fund.
Status: Not yet assigned to a committee

AB 1498 (Gipson) |Personal income tax: Earned Income Tax Credit. This bill would ensure that individuals eligible for the CalEITC get at least a $300 credit.
Status: Referred to the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee

AB 1527 (Zbu) Taxation. A placeholder bill related to taxation.
Status: Not yet assigned to a committee

AB 1576 (Wallis) Personal Income Tax Law: Corporation Tax Law: disregarded entities: credit limitation. This bill would allow certain credits to disregarded entities.
Status: Referred to the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee

ACA 3 (Lee) | Wealth tax: appropriation limits. A proposed state constitutional amendment allowing for the tax contemplated in AB 259. Requires a 2/3 vote, as does AB 259.
Status: Not yet assigned to a committee. Please see AB 259 information above for more.

HR 8 (Pietrie-Norris) | Relative to Enrolled Agents’ Day. An Assembly Resolution recognizing February 15, 2023, as Enrolled Agents' Day to commemorate the contributions of professional enrolled agents for over 50 years to California taxpayers.
Status: Minor revisions made, adopted. 

SB 1 (Glazer) | Personal Income Tax Law: exclusions: student loan forgiveness. Excludes from gross income any student loan amount waived, canceled, or otherwise forgiven by the United States Department of Education pursuant to a specified federal student debt relief plan.
Status: Referred to the Government and Finance Committee

SB 25 (Skinner) | Personal Income Tax Law: exclusion: student loan debt. Declaration of candidacy: notary. This bill was amended and now relates to candidates for public office.

SB 49 (Becker) | Renewable energy: solar canopy tax incentives: Department of Transportation strategic plan. Provides a tax exemption for the sale and use of materials and supplies purchased to construct a qualified solar canopy project.
Related media: “Organizations show support for California solar carport and highway incentives,” “New California bill aims for more solar over parking lots and along highways
Status: Not yet assigned to a committee.

SB 53 (Portantino) | Income taxes: tax credits: motion picture credit. A placeholder bill related to the film industry.
Status: Not yet assigned to a committee.

SB 82 (Seyarto) | Property taxation: disabled veterans’ exemption: eligibility letters. Seeks to make it easier to verify a service-connected disability for property tax purposes by allowing digital letters.
Status: In the Senate Government and Finance Committee

SB 93 (Nguyen) | Personal income tax: credit: virtual learning costs: dependent of the taxpayer. A former placeholder bill that provides a tax credit for virtual learning supplies incurred in 2023 through 2027. 
Status: Not yet assigned to a committee.

SB 96 (Portantino) | Sales and Use Tax Law: live events: historic event venues. Historic Venue Restoration and Resiliency Act. This bill was amended to relate to funds and live events at historic venues.

SB 220 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review) | Personal Income Tax Law: exclusion: student loan debt. This bill would exclude from an individual’s gross income, for taxable years between 2021, and 2026, the amount of certain student loans discharged after December 31, 2020, and before January 1, 2026, in conformity with federal law.
Status: In the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee

SB 230 (Seyarto) | Income tax: health savings accounts. Would allow a deduction for a taxpayer’s contributions to a health savings account.
Status: In the Senate Government and Finance Committee

SB 471 (Padilla) | Personal Income Tax Law: Corporation Tax: hiring credit: lithium extraction: battery manufacturers. Allows a tax credit for businesses in Imperial and Riverside Counties that are primarily engaged in lithium extraction or electric battery manufacturing. 
Status: Referred to the Senate Government and Finance Committee

SB 533 (Limón) | Income taxes: credit: childcare. Provides a credit for startup expenses for childcare programs or constructing a childcare facility, to be used primarily by the children of the taxpayer’s employees or by the children of employees of tenants leasing commercial or office space in a building owned by the taxpayer, or of the costs of providing childcare information and referral services to the taxpayer’s employees.
Status: Not yet assigned to a committee

SB 714 (Blakespear) | Personal income tax. A placeholder bill related to personal income taxes and foreign countries. 
Status: Not yet assigned to a committee

SB 812 (Roth) |Tax preparers: notices: social media accounts. Currently, the Tax Preparation Act requires tax preparers to register with the California Tax Education Council and maintain a surety bond. Starting in 2019, paid claims against the surety bond must be reported to the Council, which posts a notice on the website. This bill adds a requirement for the Council to also post on any social media accounts notice of claims.

Existing law also requires the Council to maintain on its website a searchable public registry, including direct links to websites maintained by the California Board of Accountancy, the State Bar of California, and the Internal Revenue Service where public information regarding tax preparers exempt from this act may be obtained. This bill adds a requirement for the Council to also post on any social media accounts the links found on its website.

Current law requires a list of approved providers of tax preparer education for tax preparers to be made available to tax preparers upon request. This bill would require a list of those approved providers to also be made available to the Legislature upon request.
Status: In the Senate Business, Professions and Economic Development Committee

SB 853 (Dahle) | Personal income tax. A placeholder bill relating to personal income tax.
Status: Not yet assigned to a committee

BILLS OF INTEREST | SMALL BUSINESS AND TAX NEXUS

AB 778 (Ta) |Taxation: corporations: minimum franchise tax: limited liability companies: annual tax: small businesses. Exempts certain businesses from paying a minimum franchise tax or an annual tax if they make less than $20,000 in gross receipts in the first taxable year they open. Press release here
Status: In the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee

SB 375 (Alvarado- Gil) | Employment: employer contributions: employee withholdings: COVID-19 regulatory compliance credit. This bill would provide some employers with a COVID-19 Regulatory Compliance Credit for the 2023 and 2024 calendar years, used to reduce the amount of Personal Income Taxes employers are required to withhold from wages.
Status: Referred to the Senate Labor, Public Employment, and Retirement Committee

BILLS OF INTEREST | SMALL BUSINESS FOCUS

AB 258 (Reyes) | Economic development: small businesses. A placeholder bill intended to create and promote a portal where small businesses can easily search for grants, procurement, and other financial opportunities to grow their businesses.
Status: Not yet assigned to a committee

New | AB 524 (Wicks) | Discrimination: family caregiver status. This bill creates a new protected class in the Fair Employment and Housing Act: “family caregiver status.” Discriminating against an employee due to this status could be considered a civil rights violation. A 2023 CalChamber “job killer” bill.
Status: Passed the Assembly Judiciary Committee; to the Labor and Employment Committee 
Related Media: “Proposed CA law: ‘Family Caregiver’ Added to Prohibited Discrimination Code,”

SB 575 (Wahab) | Employment relations. A placeholder bill relating to employer/employee relationships.
Status: Not yet assigned to a committee

SB 666 (Min) | Small business: loan fees. A placeholder bill was amended to prohibit a licensee from charging specified fees in connection with a financing transaction with a small business. 

SB 703 (Niello) | Employment: work hours: flexible work schedules. Allows a nonexempt employee to request a flexible work schedule of four days a week, 10 hours a day with no obligation for the employer to pay overtime.
Status: Referred to the Senate Labor, Public Employment, and Retirement Committee