Renter's Tax Assistance Act.

Within the Senior Citizens Property Tax Assistance and Postponement Law, the Gonsalves-Deukmejian-Petris Senior Citizens Property Tax Assistance Law provides for payment of assistance by the Franchise Tax Board to low-income and elderly or disabled claimants, whether those claimants own or rent their residences, in accordance with schedules that reduce the amount of assistance provided as the amount of a claimant's household income increases along a specified scale of household income amounts. This bill would create the Renter's Tax Assistance Act within the Senior Citizens Property Tax Assistance and Postponement Law to provide for payment of assistance by the Franchise Tax Board to individuals who rent their residences and have gross household income that do not exceed $42,588, in accordance with a schedule that reduces the amount of assistance provided as the amount of an individual's household income increases along a specified scale of household income amounts. This bill would require each individual applying for assistance to file a claim under penalty of perjury with the board on a form supplied by the board, and would require the claim to include information in the form and manner prescribed by the board that establishes that the individual was eligible for assistance. Existing law provides that a tax preparer who endorses or otherwise negotiates any warrants made with respect to assistance claimed under the Senior Citizens Property Tax Assistance and Postponement Law and issued is guilty of a misdemeanor. This bill would expand the scope of that misdemeanor to include a tax preparer who endorses or otherwise negotiates any warrants made with respect to assistance claimed under the Renter's Tax Assistance Act. By expanding the crime of perjury and expanding the scope of the existing crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.