Sales and Use Tax Law: exemptions: COVID-19 prevention and response goods.

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. This bill would exempt from those taxes, until January 1, 2025, the gross receipts from the sale of, and the storage, use, or other consumption of, COVID-19 prevention and response goods, as defined. Existing law requires a bill that would authorize a new tax expenditure under the Sales and Use Tax Law to identify specific goals, purposes, and objectives that the tax expenditure will achieve, and detailed performance indicators and data collection requirements for determining whether the tax expenditure achieves these goals, purposes, and objectives. This bill would make findings specifying the goal, purpose, and objective of the sales and use tax exemption provided by this bill and the performance indicator to be used, and would require, on or before January 1, 2026, the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration to provide a report to the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee and the Senate Governance and Finance Committee on the use of the tax exemption. 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 laws authorize districts, as specified, to impose transactions and use taxes in accordance with the Transactions and Use Tax Law, which generally conforms to the Sales and Use Tax Law. Amendments to the Sales and Use Tax Law are automatically incorporated into the local tax laws. Existing law requires the state to reimburse counties and cities for revenue losses caused by the enactment of sales and use tax exemptions. This bill would provide that, notwithstanding Section 2230 of the Revenue and Taxation Code, no appropriation is made and the state shall not reimburse any local agencies for sales and use tax revenues lost by them pursuant to this bill. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.