Qualified ABLE Program: age limit.

Existing federal law, the Stephen Beck, Jr., Achieving a Better Life Experience Act of 2014 (ABLE Act) , encourages and assists individuals and families to save private funds for the purpose of supporting eligible individuals with disabilities to maintain their health, independence, and quality of life by excluding from gross income distributions used for qualified disability expenses by a beneficiary of a qualified ABLE program established and maintained by a state, as specified. Under the ABLE Act, pursuant to the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023, an eligible individual for a taxable year is an individual entitled to specified benefits based on blindness or disability or for whom there is a disability certification filed with the Secretary of the Treasury, and such blindness or disability occurred before the date on which the individual attained 26 years of age, or, on and after January 1, 2026, 46 years of age. Existing law establishes the Qualified ABLE Program, administered by the California ABLE Act Board, in this state for purposes of implementing the federal ABLE Act, and provides the same definition for "eligible individual." Existing law, the Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2016, conforms to the exclusions from gross income provided under federal income tax law provisions relating to the ABLE Act, as those exclusions read in specified federal law prior to the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023. This bill would, commencing January 1, 2026, revise the definition of "eligible individual" under the Qualified ABLE Program by increasing the age limit for when an eligible individual's blindness or disability occurred to 46 years of age to conform with federal ABLE Act. This bill would also conform, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2026, state tax law to those changes relating to qualified ABLE programs made by the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023. Existing law requires any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure to contain, among other things, specific goals, purposes, and objectives that the tax credit will achieve, detailed performance indicators, and data collection requirements. This bill would make specified findings complying with this requirement for the above-described tax expenditure. The bill would require the Treasurer's office to submit, no later than January 1, 2030, a report to the Legislature, detailing the number of ABLE accounts that are created for individuals who are made newly eligible by the raised age limit.