More On California Middle Class Tax Refund

Here is my 3rd post on the payments California issued to probably over 90% of Californians per AB 192 (2022) (1/29/23 + 7/10/22). And others have blogged on it as well. On February 3, Procedurally Taxing had a post from Bob Kammen asking why the IRS hasn’t issued guidance. Bob also makes a comment about the high income range of Californians getting AB 192 “relief” payments, with what I think is sarcasm – that $250,000 of income for single or $500,000 if married is “middle class.”

My first post last July raised the issue that some very low income individuals without a filing obligation get no payment if they had not filed a 2020 return by 10/15/21 as required by AB 192 which was enacted in June 2022!

Why would the state provide “relief” to people with income high enough to not need relief while leaving out those who do?

The IRS stated last week that it will try to get guidance out on the taxability of various state payments issued recently. If they can address the California so-called Middle Class Tax Refund (a term used by the FTB), as AB 192 uses the term Better for Families Tax Refund (although AB 192 includes a specific statement that the payments are not income tax refunds). The IRS can clarify to ensure consistent treatment by recipients, although only those who received $600 or more received a 1099-MISC from the FTB.

Some additional observations from me:

AB 192 Has Some Oddities, Such As:

1. It adds section 8161(d) to the Welfare & Institutions Code to say: “The payment authorized by this section shall not be a refund of overpayment of income taxes”. This is likely why FTB is issuing 1099-MISC for payments issued in excess of $600 rather than 1099-G for income tax refunds of $10 or more.
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California Newsome Signs Budget Deal Offering Taxpayer Funded Health Insurance To 3.3M Immigrants

We greatly appreciate feedback from the tax professional community on these measures.

Determined to make history, and scheduled to start in 2024, the State of California and its taxpayers are offering taxpayer-funded health insurance to its entire 3.3M  illegal alien population.The cost for health insurance for  California taxpayers is expected to be about $2.4 billion annually.  

California is also expanding their food stamp program for illegal immigrants, paid for by taxpayers. Here is the post from the Governor’s Office.

Californians’ Pockets and Investing in State’s Future

Published: 

SACRAMENTO – Governor Gavin Newsom today signed a $308 billion state budget that provides direct tax refunds for 23 million Californians to help address rising costs, tackles the state’s most pressing needs, builds our reserves, and invests in California’s future.

Here are the top 10 things you need to know about the budget:

1. “Cha-ching! You just received a deposit.”

Global inflation. Rising costs. It’s hard out there and we know it. So, we’re giving you $9.5 billion back. MILLIONS of Californians– 23 million to be exact – will benefit from up to $1,050, as soon as October! See if you qualify on the new Middle-Class Tax Refund calculator here.

2.  Don’t go into crippling debt over a hospital visit

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EVA ROSENBERG - Employee vs Independent Contractor Rules In California

Since the California Legislature passed Assembly Bill 5 (AB5) in September of 2019, the rules regard who is and who is not an employee in this state have gotten ever more stringent – and confusing.

Why confusing? Because there was a very loud roar from several industries whose workers’ statuses were so severely compromised by this Bill.

I remember being at the 2019 CSEA Tax State Agency Liaison Meeting (STALM) in Sacramento after the bill was signed and one of the big concerns was truckers. Many of them work for the same company all year round (one “employer”) but own their own rigs and have always filed their tax returns using a Schedule C. Suddenly, if they had to be employees, there goes their federal deduction for the depreciation on the very expensive rig (costs approach $100,000 for some), the interest or lease fees, the fuel costs and all the other, legitimate out-of-pocket expenses they have in order to do their “jobs.”

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Update To The California Partial Manufacturing Sales And Use Tax Exemption

Since 2014, qualified companies have been eligible for a partial exemption from sales tax for purchases of machinery and equipment used in qualified manufacturing and research and development activities. California was late to the table, as most states have long had exemptions for such purchases. The exemption has also been unique in that it has been a partial exemption, and allowable only on the first $200 million of qualified purchases.

Now, Assembly Bill 1951 would expand the exemption to a full exemption (rather than partial). According to the legislative language, “This bill would on and after January 1, 2023, and before January 1, 2028 make this a full exemption for purchases not exceeding $200,000,000. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2028 and would revert to the above-described partial exemption on that date.”

So, why make these changes now? As the bill points out:

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Beer Brewing And Sales Tax In California

Craft brewing is a highly competitive industry – California leads the U.S. with almost a thousand craft beer breweries; New York, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Washington and Michigan have about 400 craft brewers per state – that’s a lot of competition. So, with all that competition, craft brewers need to look for edges to stay in business by increasing profits and reducing operating costs. Craft brewers can minimize their operating costs by reducing their sales and use tax burden, or “beer-den.” In this blog we are going to focus on the state with the most craft beer brewers – like the color of a crisp lager we will direct this blog to the Golden State – California.

Reducing Your Sales and Use Tax “Beer-den”

The business model for all craft brewers includes two departments – sales and production. Beer sales are either at retail or for resale, and the production happens behind the wall in the brewery. Let’s start with sales:

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California: Pass Through Entity Elective Tax

Governor Newsom signed California Assembly Bill 150 into law on July 16, 2021. This new law allows certain pass-through entities to annually elect to pay an elective tax in the amount of 9.3% of the pro rata share or distributive share of the entity’s partners, shareholders, or members. The partners, shareholders and members then receive a tax credit equal to that amount. The law is effective for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2021, and before January 1, 2026.

The pass-through entities that can elect to pay this tax are S corporations, general partnerships, limited liability companies taxed as partnerships, limited liability partnerships or limited partnerships. To qualify to make this election, the pass-through entity’s owners must consist solely of individuals, fiduciaries, trusts, estates or entities taxable as corporations. The pass-through entity cannot have a partnership as an owner, cannot be a publicly traded partnership, and the pass-through entity cannot be permitted or required to be in a combined reporting group.

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Tax Implications Of California's Vax For The Win Program

On May 27, 2021, California Governor Newsom’s “Vax for the Win” program with awards to vaccinated and to be vaccinated Californians provides:

  • $1.5 million to each of 10 individuals
  • $50,000 cash prize for 30 individuals
  • $50 gift cards to the first 2 million individuals vaccinated on or after May 27; prize not awarded until vaccination series is completed.

The total cost is $116.5 million.

So, what are the tax consequences?

Accession to wealth, clearly realized so taxable (§61, §74, and Glenshaw Glass, 345 US 426 (1955)) unless an exclusion applies.

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Senior Tax Manager - International (Sunnyvale, CA)

TaxConnections has been retained to conduct a search for a Senior Tax Manager – International for a global technology company headquartered in Silicon Valley, CA. .This position is responsible for providing international tax guidance for U.S. compliance and reporting; managing Americas region income tax compliance and related issues.

Responsibilities include:Review/provide technical guidance for international portion of company’s income tax return including Forms 8858, 5471, and 1118, GILTI, FDII, Subpart F and FTCs, as needed; Prepare/provide technical guidance for §861/other expense allocations for FDII benefit and foreign tax credits; Co-ordinate and manage review and approval of the international portion of Company’s U.S. tax return by external service providers, including technical analysis and discussion of issues raised; Research relevant international tax matters, new proposed and final regulations, tax law updates, and provide guidance for tax compliance and reporting; Prepare and manage U.S. tax return disclosures for international issues and transactions; Provide technical guidance to international compliance team for quarterly and year-end reporting. Review calculations for technical accuracy; Manage, supervise and train team member supporting international provision in direct tax hub offshore; Coordinate with Finance shared services centers, GL accounting, revenue and other teams on various international tax issues and more.

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Senior Tax Manager- International (San Jose, CA)

TaxConnections has been retained to conduct a search for a Senior Tax Manager – International for a global technology company headquartered in Silicon Valley, CA. .This position is responsible for providing international tax guidance for U.S. compliance and reporting; managing Americas region income tax compliance and related issues.

Responsibilities include:Review/provide technical guidance for international portion of company’s income tax return including Forms 8858, 5471, and 1118, GILTI, FDII, Subpart F and FTCs, as needed; Prepare/provide technical guidance for §861/other expense allocations for FDII benefit and foreign tax credits; Co-ordinate and manage review and approval of the international portion of Company’s U.S. tax return by external service providers, including technical analysis and discussion of issues raised; Research relevant international tax matters, new proposed and final regulations, tax law updates, and provide guidance for tax compliance and reporting; Prepare and manage U.S. tax return disclosures for international issues and transactions; Provide technical guidance to international compliance team for quarterly and year-end reporting. Review calculations for technical accuracy; Manage, supervise and train team member supporting international provision in direct tax hub offshore; Coordinate with Finance shared services centers, GL accounting, revenue and other teams on various international tax issues and more.

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Tax Manager - Research And Planning (San Francisco, CA)

The top driver that keeps tax professionals in an organization longer is how they are treated by management. Our client has an extraordinary retention rate due to the fact they treat their tax team with a high degree of respect and support you in ways you rarely experience in companies.

TaxConnections has been retained by an investment group to locate a Tax Manager in San Francisco, CA. It is an opportunity of a lifetime for a tax professional with the requisite skills.

The Tax Manger will be responsible for assisting senior tax management with tax research and planning and all aspects of the tax compliance and forecasting for a very significant investment partnership and the related investment management entity. Individual must have a solid understanding of current tax laws including knowledge of investment partnership structures. Researching and communicating the tax consequences of current and proposed investments will be a part of the responsibilities of the successful candidate.

In addition, the position will require both the preparation and review of highly detailed complex Federal, California and multi-state income tax returns, foreign investment reporting implications, preparation of tax forecasts and researching complex tax issues.
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Senior Tax Manager-International, Sunnyvale, California

TaxConnections has been retained to conduct a search for a Senior Tax Manager – International for a global technology company headquartered in Silicon Valley, CA. .This position is responsible for providing international tax guidance for U.S. compliance and reporting; managing Americas region income tax compliance and related issues. The ideal individual will also be highly versed in US/Canadian and US/Mexican operations although our client is in more than 100 countries worldwide.

Responsibilities include:Review/provide technical guidance for international portion of company’s income tax return including Forms 8858, 5471, and 1118, GILTI, FDII, Subpart F and FTCs, as needed; Prepare/provide technical guidance for §861/other expense allocations for FDII benefit and foreign tax credits; Co-ordinate and manage review and approval of the international portion of Company’s U.S. tax return by external service providers, including technical analysis and discussion of issues raised; Research relevant international tax matters, new proposed and final regulations, tax law updates, and provide guidance for tax compliance and reporting; Prepare and manage U.S. tax return disclosures for international issues and transactions; Provide technical guidance to international compliance team for quarterly and year-end reporting. Review calculations for technical accuracy; Manage, supervise and train team member supporting international provision in direct tax hub offshore; Coordinate with Finance shared services centers, GL accounting, revenue and other teams on various international tax issues and more.

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California Department Of Tax Fee Administration Amends its “Collection of Use” Tax Regulation (Part 2)

If you’ve been following along with our blogs, you know that we talked about some new amendments taking place under California Sales and Use Tax Regulation 1684, “Collection of Use Tax by Retailers”. In the first part of our blog, we discussed how California implemented on April 1, 2019 an economic nexus threshold for retailers in addition to the longstanding physical nexus threshold. The State now requires out of state sellers to register and collect use tax in California as soon as they exceed $500,000 of sales of tangible personal property in either the preceding or current calendar year.

In the first blog we focused on three examples from the amended regulation for when economic nexus would be triggered for an out-of-state retailer. In this second part of the blog we will talk about the circumstances that will allow out-of-state retailers to discontinue their obligation to collect and report use tax to California. In other words, when will California no longer require an out-of-state retailer to hold a Certificate of Registration – Use Tax and to collect and report use tax?
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