BILL SPECIFIC TO TAX PREPARERS

SB 812 (Roth) |Tax preparers. To continue state oversight of tax preparers, this bill extends the operations of the California Tax Education Council (CTEC) for four years, to January 1, 2028.
Status: Signed into law

BILLS OF INTEREST | TAX FOCUS

AB 84 (Ward) | Property tax: welfare exemption: affordable housing. Changes the property tax welfare exemption for to cover more affordable housing projects by expanding the current partial welfare exemption to property acquired, rehabilitated, developed, or operated, or any combination of these factors, with financing from qualified 501(c)(3) bonds.
Status: Signed into law

AB 1400 (Bryan) | Student financial aid: College Access Tax Credit Fund: community college student transfers: Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Repurposes the College Access Tax Credit Fund, established to supplement Cal Grant awards for students enrolled at California-based colleges, to instead be used to cover college costs for California Community College students seeking to transfer to historically black colleges and universities located outside of California.
Status: Signed into law

BILLS OF INTEREST | BUSINESS FOCUS

AB 258 (Reyes) | Economic development: small businesses: Small Business Information Act: Internet web portal. Creates a portal on the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz)’s website to support small businesses in locating access to appropriate resources.
Status: Signed into law

SB 403 (Wahab) | Discrimination on the basis of ancestry. Intended to provide additional clarity to businesses, employers, and schools about what forms of discrimination are prohibited, this bill clarifies that discrimination based on caste is prohibited on the basis of ancestry under existing anti- discrimination statutes.
Status: Vetoed

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. As another bill, SB 403, would amend the same part of state law, this bill was modified to tie both bills together to avoid any statutory issues.
Status: Vetoed

SB 553 (Cortese) | Occupational safety: workplace violence: restraining orders and workplace violence prevention plan. Requires employers to establish, implement, and maintain a workplace violence prevention plan that includes, among other elements, requirements to maintain incident logs, provide specified trainings, and conduct periodic reviews of the plan.
Status: Signed into law

SB 616 (Gonzalez) | Sick days: paid sick days: accrual and use. This bill (1) increases the three days of paid sick leave currently afforded to employees to five days; (2) increases the cap that employers can place on paid sick days from six to 10 days and 48 to 80 hours and increases the number of paid sick days an employee can roll over to the next year from three to five days; (3) and extends procedural and anti-retaliation provisions in existing paid sick leave law to employees covered by a valid collective bargaining agreement that is exempt, if they meet specified criteria, from other provisions of the paid sick leave law.
Status: Signed into law 

TRACKED 2023 BILLS THAT DIED BEFORE SESSION ENDED

ACA 11 (Ting) | State tax agency. A proposed amendment to the state constitution, this bill would abolish the State Board of Equalization and instead require the Legislature to create a state tax agency to carry out the powers, duties, and responsibilities previously vested in the Board of Equalization. Requires a 2/3 vote to pass. If passed, a constitutional amendment does not require the Governor's signature, but does require approval by the electorate at the next general election. 

AB 14 (Davies) |Personal Income Tax: credit: childcare costs. Allows an additional credit for taxpayers who qualify for the existing Federal child and dependent care expense credit.

AB 17 (Alanis) | Personal Income Tax: rate. A former placeholder bill 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.

AB 26 (Mike Fong) | Personal Income Tax Law: exclusion: federal student loan debt relief plan. Excludes from gross income amounts of up to $20,000 in "qualified student loan debt" that is discharged under the Federal student loan debt relief plan.

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.

AB 52 (Grayson) | Income tax credit: sales and use taxes paid: manufacturing equipment: research and development equipment. Enacts Personal Income and Corporation Tax Credits equal to the amount of sales and use tax paid on the purchase of equipment.

AB 59 (Gallagher) |Taxation: renter’s credit. Increases, contingent upon appropriation, the number of taxpayers that qualify for the Renter's Credit by increasing the Renter's Credit amount for a qualified renter and makes that credit refundable upon appropriation.

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; and related provisions.

AB 441 (Haney) | Credit: young child tax credit: foster youth tax credit: periodic payments. Requires the Franchise Tax Board to establish a program to make advance periodic payments of the California Earned Income Tax Credit, the Young Child Tax Credit, and the Foster Youth Tax Credit to "qualified taxpayers."

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.

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.

AB 877 (Addis) | Income taxes: credit: lodging for displaced persons. Allows a credit for taxpayers who operate a lodging facility, as specified in the bill, and provide shelter to persons displaced by a natural disaster free of charge.

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.

AB 1066 (Patterson) |Property taxation: exemption: low-value properties. Increases the low-value property tax exemption from $10,000 to $15,000, among other provisions.

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, among other provisions.

AB 1128 (Santiago) | Personal Income Tax Law: young child tax credit: qualifying child. Expands the number of taxpayers eligible for the California Young Child Tax Credit by removing the requirement that a qualifying child must be younger than 6 years of age as of the last day of the taxable year.

AB 1397 (Low) | Administration of income taxes: electronic remittance: penalty. Caps the amount of the 1% penalty applied for certain non-electric filings at $25,000 per payment.

AB 1498 (Gipson) |Personal income tax: Earned Income Tax Credit. Establishes, upon appropriation by the Legislature and for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2023, a minimum credit amount of approximately $300 for taxpayers who claim the California Earned Income Tax Credit.

AB 1527 (Zbu) Taxation. A placeholder bill related to taxation.

AB 1576 (Wallis) Personal Income Tax Law: Corporation Tax Law: disregarded entities: credit limitation. This bill would allow certain credits to disregarded entities.

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.

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.

SB 1 (Glazer) | Personal Income Tax Law: exclusion: student loan debt. Excludes from a person’s gross income, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2021, and before January 1, 2026, the amount of certain student loans discharged, in whole or in part, after December 31, 2020, and before January 1, 2026, in conformity with federal law.

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. Among other items, exempts from sales and use taxes the materials and supplies purchased to construct solar canopy projects. Tax language amended out.

SB 53 (Portantino) | Income taxes: tax credits: motion picture credit. A placeholder bill related to the film industry.

SB 73 (Seyarto) | Employment policy: voluntary veterans’ preference. This bill enacts the Voluntary Veterans’ Preference Employment Policy Act and authorizes a private employer to establish a veterans’ preference employment policy.

SB 82 (Seyarto) | Property taxation: disabled veterans’ exemption: eligibility letters. Requires a county assessor to accept an electronically-generated letter of service-connected disability in lieu of an original letter.

SB 93 (Nguyen) | Personal income tax: credit: virtual learning costs: dependent of the taxpayer. Provides a tax credit for virtual learning supplies incurred in 2023 through 2027.

SB 96 (Portantino) | 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) | Income taxes: credits: corporate tax rate: minimum franchise tax: critical needs fund. As amended, this bill creates the Critical Needs Fund for schools, homelessness, and hospitals; affects the workers’ tax credit adjustment factor; impacts renter’s credits; and modifies the personal income tax credit and corporate tax rate.

SB 230 (Seyarto) | Income tax: health savings accounts. Would allow a deduction for a taxpayer’s contributions to a health savings account.

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.

SB 533 (Limón) | Income taxes: credit: childcare. Creates two credits for the costs to build childcare centers and contributions made to provide specialized care for dependents of employees.

SB 714 (Blakespear) | Personal income tax. A placeholder bill related to personal income taxes and foreign countries.

SB 853 (Dahle) | Personal income tax. A placeholder bill relating to personal income tax.

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.

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.

SB 575 (Wahab) | Employment relations. A placeholder bill relating to employer/employee relationships.