Personal income tax: rates.

The Personal Income Tax Law imposes a tax upon taxable income at various rates depending upon the amount of that income, and also imposes an alternative minimum tax based upon specified tax preference items. This bill would declare that it is the intent of the Legislature to reinstate income tax brackets for the highest income earners to address the state's budget problems. This bill would, for any taxable year beginning on or after January 1, 2012, and before January 1, 2017, increase the tax rate applicable to taxable income over specified amounts to 10% and 11%, and increase the alternative minimum tax rate to 8.5%. This bill would include a change in state statute that would result in a taxpayer paying a higher tax within the meaning of Section 3 of Article XIII A of the California Constitution, and thus would require for passage the approval of 23 of the membership of each house of the Legislature. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.