California Department of Tax and Fee Administration.

(1) Existing law establishes the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (department) and provides that the department is the successor to, and is vested with, all of the duties, powers, and responsibilities of the State Board of Equalization. Existing law authorizes the department to adopt regulations as necessary or appropriate to carry out the purposes of those provisions. Existing law exempts any standard, criterion, procedure, determination, rule, notice, or guideline established or issued by the department from the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) . This bill would, among other things, make various conforming changes consistent with that transfer of duties, powers, and responsibilities. The bill would also generally require or authorize, as provided, the department to administer its duties through electronic media, as specified. The bill would, on January 1, 2022, repeal the exemption from the APA described above. (2) Existing law, the Marine Invasive Species Act, requires the master, owner, operator, or person in charge of a vessel carrying, or capable of carrying, ballast water, that operates in the waters of the state to take various actions to minimize the uptake and release of nonindigenous species. The act requires the department to collect a specified fee, established by the State Lands Commission, from the owner or operator of each vessel that arrives at a California port or place from a port or place outside of California. This bill would additionally authorize the department to collect that fee from a vessel agent, as defined, acting on behalf of the owner or operator. (3) Existing state sales and use tax laws impose a tax on retailers measured by the gross receipts from the sale of tangible personal property sold at retail in this state of, 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. The Sales and Use Tax Law provides various exemptions from those taxes, including an exemption for food products, as defined, for human consumption. Existing law defines "food products" to not include medicines and preparations in liquid, powdered, granular, tablet, capsule, lozenge, and pill form sold as dietary supplements or adjuncts. This bill additionally would specify that "food products" does not include cannabis, medicinal cannabis, or medicinal cannabis products, as defined. (4) Existing law, the Emergency Telephone Users Surcharge Act, imposes a surcharge on each access line for each month or part thereof for which a service user subscribes with a service supplier in an amount determined by the Office of Emergency Services, as specified. This bill would make various changes related to the administration of the act, including by requiring the Office of Emergency Services, within 45 days of receiving a request from the department, to provide the department the name and address of each service supplier, each service supplier's total number of access lines, for the prior calendar year, and any other information the department deems necessary to conduct its responsibilities under the act. (5) Existing law, the Hazardous Substances Tax Law, requires the department to provide all information obtained under law to the Department of Toxic Substances Control. The law makes it unlawful for a person that has an administrative duty under the law to make known the business affairs, operations, or any other information pertaining to a taxpayer that was submitted to the department in a report or return required by the law, or to permit any return or copy thereof or any book containing any abstract or particulars thereof to be seen or examined by any person not expressly authorized by these provisions. This bill would, among other things, require the department to additionally provide all information obtained under the law to the State Department of Public Health and would apply the confidentiality provision described above to any information pertaining to a taxpayer without regard to whether it was submitted to the department in a report or return required by the law. (6) The Timber Yield Tax Law imposes a timber yield tax on specified individuals, including every timber owner, as defined, who harvests timber, as defined, or causes it to be harvested on or after April 1, 1977, and on every person who, without authorization, intentionally or unintentionally harvests or causes to be harvested timber owned by another. Exiting law requires the interest for various underpayments or overpayments of the timber yield tax to be determined in accordance with federal law, unless the taxpayer is a corporation, for which the overpayment rate is the lesser of 5% or the bond equivalent rate of 13-week United States Treasury bills. This bill would revise the underpayment interest rates for purposes of the timber yield tax to the amount determined in accordance with federal law plus 3 percentage points, and would revise the overpayment rate for all taxpayers to be equal to the bond equivalent rate of 13-week treasury bills, as specified. (7) Existing property tax law requires every assessor to assess all property subject to general property taxation at its full value, as provided. Existing property tax law generally prohibits public inspection of information and records in the assessor's office that are not required by law to be kept or prepared by the assessor, disabled veterans' exemption claims, and homeowners' exemption claims, but requires the assessor to disclose information, furnish abstracts, or permit access to all records in the assessor's office to, among other entities, employees of the Franchise Tax Board, solely for tax administration purposes, and the State Board of Equalization. This bill would additionally require the assessor to disclose information, furnish abstracts, or permit access to all records in the assessor's office to the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration. The bill would also make various technical changes to these provisions. By requiring county assessors to provide specified information and record access to the department, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (8) Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect. 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 shall be made pursuant to these statutory provisions for costs mandated by the state pursuant to this act, but would recognize that a local agency or school district may pursue any available remedies to seek reimbursement for these costs.