CA effort to close the Proposition 13 loophole for businesses

San Francisco Examiner/Mike Billings, Assistant Managing Editor, 12/13/12.  "San Francisco legislators are eager to reform Proposition 13 and related tax policies."

Additional tax revenue for the State (above) *

 ".... Ammiano plans to introduce legislation to close a loophole that allows companies to avoid reassessment when commercial properties change hands. A similar item he wrote died last session on the floor of the Legislature.

“When you change ownership and it is 50 percent plus one, then you get reassessed,” Ammiano said. “So what the big guys … have done, they have cleverly come up with ways so that it isn’t 50 percent plus one.” Ammiano said some businesses use a third-party investor or holding company to avoid reassessment. 

Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association President Jon Coupal said his group, which grew out of the effort to pass Prop. 13, could possibly support Ammiano’s idea, depending on the details. He conceded that commercial properties might dodge the intent of the law as Ammiano suggests, but said the solution is better enforcement of existing laws, not a new law.  

....  According to a Dec. 6 survey from the Public Policy Institute of California, 60 percent of likely voters say that Prop. 13 has been mostly good for the state. And yet, at the same time, 58 percent of likely voters say they support reforms designed to tax commercial properties more."    Read article.

*  Photograph from the San Francisco Examiner article, AP file.

Posted by Kathy Meeh