Session Year 2001, Special Session 1

Bill Name: SF0013

Relating to taxation ARTICLE 1 - PROPERTY TAXESRequiring separate certification
of county property tax levies for watershed management purposes, requiring
county auditor extension of the levies as special taxing district levies;
increasing the levy limit for watershed district administrative funds and
changing the funds to general funds; providing an alternative for the assignment
of bonded indebtedness to land detached from one school district and annexed to
another, providing for taxation of the land and assumption of bonded debt by the
school district of annexation upon agreement of the school boards of both
districts and the county board, requiring detachment and annexation petitions to
include a description of the method of assignment; authorizing certain school
districts to levy for swimming pool operating costs; authorizing and providing
for counties, cities or towns to establish special taxing districts for
emergency medical services (EMS), providing for expansion of and withdrawal from
the districts and for dissolution; expanding the requirement for public
utilities to accept and consider other proposals under the biomass mandate to a
proposal for a new facility to satisfy a certain number of megawatts of the
electrical generation requirements by a small business sponsored independent
power producer facility to be located in the northern quarter of the state and
using biomass residue wood, sawdust, bark, chipped wood or brush to generate
electricity, qualifying the eligible facility for a personal property tax
exemption; expanding the jurisdiction of the small claims division of the tax
court to cases involving valuation, assessment or taxation of real or personal
property under certain conditions; providing for the determination of the total
size of wind energy conversion systems for property tax exemption purposes;
providing a temporary property tax exemption for certain newly constructed
residential buildings on temporary sites; authorizing developers of new or
existing medium or large scale wind energy conversion systems to negotiate with
the city or town and county of location to establish a payment in lieu of tax on
personal property used to generate electric power to provide fees or
compensation to the host jurisdictions to maintain public infrastructure and
services; phasing out limited market value for residential, agricultural or
seasonal properties taxation purposes; modifying the procedure for property tax
assessment of vacant platted land; extending homestead classification to
property owners residing in elderly assisted living facilities; expanding the
provision providing for special homestead treatment of certain agricultural
property; expanding the definition of agricultural products to maple syrup for
agricultural property tax classification purposes; modifying certain proposed
property tax notice and hearing (truth in taxation) and certain local government
unit tax levy reporting requirements; authorizing counties to offer
tax-forfeited lands requested to be withheld from sale by towns or cities after
expiration of the withholding period upon failure of the town board or city
council to submit an application and resolution to acquire the property;
modifying certain tax-forfeited land conveyance authority of the commissioner of
revenue, the change of use authority of local government units acquiring the
lands and certain reversion requirements; authorizing county boards to by
resolution establish an alternative method of computing the amount required to
repurchase certain long term tax-forfeited homesteaded property, requiring the
county assessor to determine the current market value and classification of the
property; authorizing the Ramsey county board to sell tax-forfeited lands to
local government units for public purposes, specifying certain factors to be
considered by the board in determining land values, providing for conveyance by
the commissioner and for use of the lands, specifying certain reversion and
reporting requirements; expanding the property tax exemption for certain housing
projects on the White Earth Indian reservation to housing projects on all Indian
reservations; making generic the federal census date for the determination of
median household income for targeted neighborhoods designation eligibility
purposes; providing payments in lieu of taxes for natural resources lands
acquired by the department of transportation (DOT) to replace wetland losses
caused by transportation projects; accelerating the repeal of the education
finance act of 1992; requiring and providing for commissioner of revenue
reconveyance of certain tax-forfeited land in Dakota county to special school
district 6, South St. Paul for no consideration under certain conditions;
granting the Minnehaha Creek watershed district certain additional levy
authority to enforce rules and permits; authorizing and providing for the
private sale of certain tax-forfeited land in St. Louis county; authorizing the
Red River watershed management board to compensate counties and townships for
lost property tax revenue from land becoming tax exempt after board acquisition
for a flood damage reduction project; forgiving certain penalties and interest
assessed against a certain property owner in St. Louis county under certain
payment agreement conditions; authorizing the housing finance agency (HFA) to
adopt rules for certification of low income housing qualifying for the reduced
property tax rate; repealing certain provisions relating to property tax rate
calculations and certain watershed district special levy authority laws ARTICLE
2 - SALES AND USE TAXES Clarifying certain provisions providing for refund of
erroneously collected sales taxes to vendors and purchasers; imposing the sales
tax on clothing made from fur; clarifying the elimination of the sales tax
exemption for temporary storage of property, allowing tax refunds for property
stored between certain dates under certain conditions; exempting from the sales
tax waste processing equipment of electric generation facilities using waste
tires as a primary fuel source; clarifying the definition of person, modifying
the definition of sale or purchase relating to food and services, expanding the
definitions of retail sale to lease or rental and of retailer to seller,
modifying the definitions of sales price, computer software and common carrier
and defining or redefining certain terms for sales tax imposition or exemption
purposes; updating certain references to the internal revenue code (IRC);
providing for the determination of the source of sale for certain products and
requiring and providing for multiple points of use exemption certificates for
sellers under certain conditions; providing a trade allowance exemption for
tangible personal property taken in trade for resale and exempting from the tax
ambulance supplies, repair or replacement parts and equipment and petroleum
products purchased by ambulance services or transit services receiving
reimbursement under medical assistance (MA); clarifying the exemptions for
certain items used in the production of energy, for capital equipment, for
property transported out of state and for occasional sales of personal property
primarily used in a trade or business; qualifying certain limited liability
companies for the sales tax exemption for nonprofit groups, hospitals and
business incubator or industrial park building materials and supplies under
certain conditions; clarifying the definition of outpatient surgical services
for exemption purposes; restricting the exemption for regionwide public safety
radio communication system products and services to metropolitan area counties;
exempting from the sales tax fundraising sales of personal property by or for
nonprofit groups under certain conditions and removing the exemption for taxable
services at fundraising events; clarifying and modifying the exemption of
retailers with exemption certificates from sales tax collection and remittance
requirements; expanding the credit for taxes paid to other states to
subdivisions of the states; authorizing commissioner of revenue revocation of
retailer sales tax permits for violation of certain cigarette or tobacco product
purchase thresholds; eliminating the authority of local government units (the
city of Duluth) to continue to collect and administer local sales taxes;
expanding the requirement for the commissioner to deduct certain administrative
costs from local sales tax collections; "Uniform Sales and Use Tax
Administration Act", requiring and providing for the commissioner to enter into
agreements with other states to simplify and modernize sales and use tax
administration, providing for the establishment of standards for multistate
sellers; increasing the maximum combined rate for all sales taxes on lodging in
the city of Minneapolis; requiring the commissioner by a certain date to prepare
plans for submission to the legislature to replace the higher sales tax on
liquor and beer and the current liquor tax with a single tax on liquor and the
current sales tax on short term motor vehicle rentals with a single tax or fee
on the rentals, specifying certain plan requirements; requiring the commissioner
to request the member states of the streamlined sales and use tax agreement to
adopt a uniform definition for clothing made of fur for sales tax imposition
purposes; specifying certain alphabetization, reference correction and
renumbering instructions to the revisor of statutes; repealing the replaced
sales tax exemption for electricity used for snowmaking at ski facilities and
the exemption for materials, supplies and equipment used in the construction of
the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Duluth convention centers, the sales taxes on
liquor and beer and on short term motor vehicle rentals and an obsolete
provision providing for refund of certain sales taxes paid on park trailers
ARTICLE 3 - SPECIAL TAXESProviding for an annual increase in police state aid to
provide equality with revenues under the tax on automobile risk self insurance;
defining initial registration and renewal periods for leased motor vehicle
registration tax clarification purposes; modifying the imposition of the
petroleum inspection fee; exempting licensed ambulance services from the
gasoline and special fuels taxes and reducing the distributor gasoline tax
shrinkage allowance; applying the mixed municipal solid waste tax rate to
nonmixed municipal solid waste and exempting construction debris generated from
presidentially declared disaster area repair and demolition activities from the
tax under certain conditions; eliminating certain lawful gambling tax and
combined receipts reporting requirements of licensed gambling organizations and
the tax savings expenditure restriction; repealing certain provisions providing
for insurance premium tax equivalent payments by automobile risk self insurers
ARTICLE 4 - FEDERAL UPDATEUpdating certain state income tax provisions to
changes in the internal revenue code (IRC) under the consolidated appropriation
act of 2001, the installment tax correction act of 2000 and the FSC repeal and
extraterritorial income exclusion act of 2000, providing coordinating language
for foreign operating companies (FOCs); updating the definition of internal
revenue code for property tax refund and estate tax purposes ARTICLE 5 TAX
ADMINISTRATION Providing for the collection of student loan debts under state
debt collection procedures; requiring a proof of sales tax payment certificate
for initial registration of all-terrain vehicles (ATV), exception; requiring the
payment of fees under the safe drinking water act to the commissioner of health
in lieu of the commissioner of revenue; clarifying the authority of the
commissioner of revenue to bar individuals representing taxpayers from further
practice before the commissioner; authorizing and providing for the commissioner
to enter into agreements with governing bodies of federally recognized Indian
reservations relating to refund or sharing of fees imposed on on-reservation
activities; making consistent the time limit for commissioner warrants to county
sheriffs for levy and sale of property for failure to pay taxes with the time
limit for collection of delinquent taxes; expanding the provision requiring the
listing and posting of delinquent taxpayers to certain corporate franchise tax
payment delinquencies; increasing income limits for the medical care debt
exclusion from revenue recapture and setting the base year for annual inflation
adjustments; classifying data collected under the revenue recapture act by the
department of revenue from claimant agencies relating to filed claims and
criteria or information used in determining whether or not to investigate
alleged criminal violations of laws administered by the commissioner, expanding
the classification of data provided by tax informers and reclassifying inactive
investigative data; expanding the exemption for personal property used for
pollution control, requiring the commissioner to make the exemption decision
based on information and advice from the pollution control agency (PCA);
authorizing the commissioner to approve county assessor appointments on a
probationary basis; extending the time limit for county commissioners to fill
county assessor vacancies and clarifying the authority of the commissioners to
terminate county assessor terms; eliminating the requirement for commissioner
approval of joint assessment agreements between counties and cities or towns;
expanding real property valuation and notice requirements and requiring the
commissioner to specify the form of the notice; changing local boards of review
or equalization to boards of appeal and equalization and eliminating certain
informational meeting requirements relating to the taxation of noncommercial
seasonal residential recreational property; clarifying the authority of counties
to sell personal property abandoned on tax-forfeited land; modifying the
procedure for refund of mortgage registry or deed tax overpayments; clarifying
the definition of consideration in contracts for deed and the definition of
corporate reorganization for deed tax determination purposes, subjecting
transfers occurring during corporate or partnership reorganization to a minimal
deed tax and modifying the deed tax computation formula; clarifying the
authority of purchasers to apply directly to the commissioner for sales tax
refunds; modifying the formula for computation of the income tax liability of
certain part year residents; providing for electronic political contribution
refund claims, authorizing the commissioner to accept the number on the official
receipt as documentation of the contribution; expanding eligibility for the
dependent care and working family income tax credits and modifying the inflation
adjustment requirements of the commissioner; modifying the marriage penalty
credit; allowing certain additional depreciation modifications for corporate
alternative minimum tax (AMT) purposes; extending the effectiveness of the
notice by employers to taxpayers of the withholding of delinquent taxes; setting
a fixed amount of rent to be used in calculating property tax refunds for
residents of nursing homes, intermediate care facilities (ICF MR) and adult
foster care; modifying the application of joint property tax refunds to the
payment of outstanding tax liability of spouses; requiring storage of fuel in a
supply tank separate from a licensed motor vehicle fuel tank for off-highway
business use gasoline or special tax refund eligibility purposes; adding a
provision previously inadvertently omitted authorizing and providing for
commissioner determinations, corrections and assessments relating to fuel taxes
or fees; imposing a statute of limitations on fuel tax or fee overpayment refund
claims and clarifying the time limit for refund claims based on qualifying use;
authorizing the commissioner to cancel certain erroneously issued or reissued
sales tax permits; expanding the sales tax exemption for prescription drugs and
clarifying the exemption for sales to hospitals and nursing homes owned and
operated by local government units; authorizing the commissioner to enter into
an agreement with the commissioner of transportation (DOT) for collection of the
sales tax on aircraft; expanding the motor vehicle sales tax exemption for
vehicles purchased by residents of other states to residents of other countries
and excluding public schools, universities or libraries from the exemption for
motor vehicles purchased for charitable, religious or educational purposes;
modifying the statute of limitations for assessments for cigarette and tobacco
or liquor tax overpayments and for liquor tax overpayment refund claims after
receipt of an assessment order; subjecting claimants for liquor tax refunds
based on bad debt to certain federal tax change notice requirements; imposing a
use tax on mixed municipal solid waste management services; requiring local
tobacco licensing authorities to send certain information on license holders to
the commissioner of revenue within a certain number of days of license issuance;
changing the date for state reimbursement to local government units for taxes
lost under the metropolitan agricultural preserves act; requiring the
commissioner to report to the legislature by a certain date on the advisability
of terminating individual income tax reciprocity with Wisconsin; repealing the
obsolete ethanol credit for sales to governmental units or school districts, the
tentative carryback adjustments for income tax operating loss deductions,
certain income tax provisions applicable to estates and trusts, a certain
provision providing for the individual tax liability of partners of
partnerships, the motor vehicle sales tax refund for park trailers, the income
tax credit and property tax refund for property taxes paid on seasonal
residential recreational property and certain subsequently codified cigarette
and tobacco tax rules ARTICLE 6 - LOCAL DEVELOPMENTExempting preexisting tax
increment financing districts from contributing to the taconite tax relief area
fiscal disparities (revenue distribution) pool until decertification; providing
additional enterprise zone allocations to the western border cities of
Breckenridge, Dilworth, East Grand Forks, Moorhead and Ortonville; expanding the
definition of bonds for TIF purposes to interfund loans and advances; clarifying
the definitions of redevelopment and renewal and renovation districts relating
to the blight test and modifying the definition of economic development
district; eliminating the authority to waive increments for housing,
redevelopment and hazardous substance subdistricts; requiring the filing of
copies of TIF plans and amendments and development or project plans with the
commissioner of revenue and requiring the commissioner to provide copies to the
state auditor upon request; modifying the duration limit for housing or
redevelopment districts or hazardous substance subdistricts and clarifying
calculation of the limit for the subdistricts; prohibiting the use of tax
increments by certain districts for administrative expenses for certain
projects; recodifying the provision prohibiting the use of tax increments for
social, recreational or conference facilities; requiring separate assessment of
the estimated value of improvements to tax exempt property after certification
at the request of the development authority; authorizing the payment of project
costs with interfund loans under certain conditions; clarifying the definition
of governing body for town tax abatement authority purposes and the application
of the duration extension for abatements; limiting the referendum exemption for
abatement bonds; expanding the authority to spend increments on low income
housing activities outside the project area; authorizing a metropolitan area
agreement to qualify low rent public housing built under the Hollman decree for
the property tax exemption, requiring payments in lieu of taxes; authorizing and
providing for the city of Luverne to designate a certain number of border city
development zones ARTICLE 7 - SUSTAINABLE FOREST INCENTIVE ACT Modifying certain
provisions under the auxiliary forest tax law, qualifying previously enrolled
lands for the sustainable forest incentive program, providing for calculation of
the tax difference; expanding the definition of refund under the revenue
recapture act to sustainable forest tax payments; enacting the "Sustainable
Forest Incentive Act" to encourage private forest landowner long term
commitments to sustainable forest management, specifying property eligibility,
application and certification requirements and providing for calculation of the
incentive payment, requiring removal of property from the program for tax
delinquency; repealing the tree growth tax lawARTICLE 8 - CIVIL AND CRIMINAL
PENALTIESModifying the imposition of civil penalties for nonpayment of taxes and
for failure to file returns to provide for one time in lieu of graduated
penalties for certain violations and to reduce certain current one time
penalties; imposing additional penalties with interest for extended delinquency;
expanding the penalty for frivolous returns to frivolous refund claims and the
criminal penalty for filing false or fraudulent cigarette and tobacco tax
returns to fraudulent invoices; appropriating money to the commissioner of
revenue to implement the penalty changes; repealing the cap on certain combined
penalties ARTICLE 9 - SEIZURES OF CONTRABAND Modifying certain provisions
providing for the seizure and disposition of certain property for violations of
gasoline or special fuels, sales, gambling, cigarette and tobacco and liquor tax
laws (contraband) ARTICLE 10 - ELECTRONIC FILING AND PAYMENT Providing for
electronic filing and payment of hazardous waste generator, mortgage registry,
income, corporate franchise, entertainer, withholding, sales and use,
MinnesotaCare gross earnings, pull tab and tipboard, cigarette and tobacco
products, insurance gross premium and liquor taxes and the metropolitan solid
waste landfill fee; defining electronic means; date of delivery or payment to be
the date of the confirmation time and date stamp of the transaction; requiring
only a single notice to the taxpayer by the commissioner of revenue of the
requirement to pay electronically; changing the date for vendor filing and
payment of sales and use taxes ARTICLE 11 - MISCELLANEOUSAuthorizing temporary
waiver of state agency services fees in presidentially declared disaster areas
with the approval of the governor; transferring the administration and
enforcement of the unfair cigarette sales act from the commissioner of revenue
to the commissioner of commerce; authorizing the commissioner of revenue to
reissue lapsed uncashed tax refund or rebate checks to taxpayers showing
reasonable cause, time limit, providing an open appropriation to the
commissioner for checks reissuance purposes; requiring the commissioner to allow
taxpayers to request the sending of notices and correspondence between the
department of revenue and the taxpayer to holders of the power of attorney;
authorizing and providing for commissioner temporary publication of names of
certain delinquent taxpayers; requiring the commissioner to annually report to
the commissioner of commerce as unclaimed property certain uncashed checks or
warrants for tax overpayments; extending the time limit for the filing of
financial reports by cities and towns located in presidentially declared
disaster areas under certain conditions; excluding all employer distributions to
employees participating in payroll contribution plans from the definition of
lottery for gambling crimes purposes; requiring the commissioner of finance to
transfer a portion of certain appropriations for the department of revenue to
the department of commerce for unfair cigarette sales act administration and
enforcement purposes; repealing the property tax reform account and the
provision providing for refusal to issue distributor or subjobber licenses to
unfair cigarette sales act violators(ra)