Sales and use taxes: exemption: small businesses: Los Angeles County transit projects.

Existing sales and use tax laws impose 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, and provides various exemptions from the taxes imposed by those laws. Existing law creates the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA) with specified powers and duties relative to transportation planning, programming, and operations in the County Los Angeles. This bill would partially exempt from those taxes the gross receipts from the sale of, and the storage, use, or other consumption of, tangible personal property sold by, or purchased from, a retailer that is a small business, as defined, and whose property line abuts or faces the rail corridor or a designated construction staging or construction storage area of the Crenshaw/LAX Transit Corridor Light Rail Line, the Regional Connector Transit Corridor Light Rail Line, or the Westside Subway Extension Light Rail Line, as specified. The bill would require a small business to provide a written certification to the Board of Equalization that it has suffered a negative financial impact during construction of those rail lines in order to receive the partial exemption, as provided. The bill would also make related findings and declarations. This bill would require the LACMTA to notify the board of the date construction ends for each project. To the extent the bill would require the LACMTA to report to the board regarding the completion of construction, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. 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 generally to the Sales and Use Tax Law. Exemptions from state sales and use taxes are incorporated into these laws. This bill would specify that this exemption does not apply to local sales and use taxes and transactions and use taxes. 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. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy. However, the provisions of this act shall become operative on January 1, 2016.