Sales and use taxes: exemption: medium- or heavy-duty zero-emission trucks.

Existing sales and use tax laws impose taxes on retailers measured by 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, measured by sales price. The Sales and Use Tax Law provides various exemptions from those taxes. Existing law establishes the State Air Resources Board as the state agency responsible for monitoring and regulating sources emitting greenhouse gases. The State Air Resources Board, in this capacity, administers the California Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project under which the agency issues a limited number of vouchers to incentivize the purchase and use of zero-emission commercial vehicles. This bill would provide an exemption from sales and use taxes with respect to the sale in this state of, and the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of, a qualified motor vehicle. The bill would define "qualified motor vehicle" as, among other things, a new zero-emission truck that is eligible for a project voucher. The bill would, however, disallow the exemption from a sales or use tax where the vehicle purchase was made using a voucher issued by the State Air Resources Board pursuant to the California Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project. The bill would provide that the tax exemption does not apply to specified state sales and use taxes from which the proceeds are deposited into the Local Revenue Fund, the Local Revenue Fund 2011, or the Local Public Safety Fund. The bill would provide that the exemption would apply to otherwise eligible sales and uses of a vehicle where the internet website of the State Air Resources Board indicates a vehicle is eligible for the voucher program at the time the purchase is made, notwithstanding a contrary determination made by the State Air Resources Board. The bill would require the State Air Resources Board to indicate the date on which it updates its internet website to reflect changes in the eligibility of a vehicle under the voucher project. The bill would provide that the exemption is to become operative on April 1, 2023. 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. This bill would specify that this exemption does not apply to local sales and use taxes or transactions and use taxes. The bill would provide that the above-described exemption shall become inoperative on April 1, 2028, and as of that date is repealed. 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, 2023, the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration to provide a report to the Assembly Committee on Revenue and Taxation and the Senate Committee on Governance and Finance on the use of the tax exemption. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.