California BOE Begins Rulemaking for Sales Tax Fairness Law

This week, the California Board of Equalization (BOE) voted to begin the rulemaking process for the recently passed sales tax fairness legislation (AB 28X), which was signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown at the end of June, as reported by the Sacramento Bee [1]. The vote to begin the process was 3-2, with three Democrats voting to begin the process and two Republicans opposing.

In the coming weeks, the BOE will start holding informal hearings throughout California in regards to implementing the law, the Bee article noted. 

As the BOE begins the rules process, Amazon.com has started collecting signatures to overturn the law. Last week, the California Attorney General’s office ruled that Amazon.com is legally permitted to seek a voter referendum to overturn the sales tax fairness law [2].  Amazon.com will need to collect approximately 504,000 signatures by late September for the referendum to appear on a 2012 ballot.

Republican board member George Runner was one of the two who voted against beginning the rulemaking process. He told the Sacramento Bee that he did so because he believed it was pointless for the state agency to launch hearings on “basically a bill, a concept, that is on pause.”

However, BOE Chairperson Betty Yee, who voted in favor of beginning the process, told the Sacramento Bee, “We have a bill that is current law.”