Sales and use taxes: exemption: biomass electrical energy production.

The Sales and Use Tax Law imposes taxes on retailers measured by the 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. That law provides various exemptions from those taxes. This bill would, until January 1, 2017, exempt from those taxes the sale of, and the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of, specified tangible personal property purchased by a biomass energy facility, as defined, to be used primarily for the production of electrical energy from biomass materials, as defined, and to maintain and repair that property. 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 law authorizes districts, as specified, to impose transactions and use taxes in accordance with the Transactions and Use Tax Law, which conforms to the Sales and Use Tax Law. Exemptions from state sales and use taxes are incorporated in these laws. This bill would specify that this exemption does not apply to local sales and use taxes, transactions and use taxes, and state taxes from which revenues are deposited into the Local Public Safety Fund, the Local Revenue Fund, or the Fiscal Recovery Fund. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy, but its operative date would depend on its effective date.