HB0410 95TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

LRB095 06518 BDD 26620 b

95TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2007 and 2008
HB0410

Introduced 01/26/07, by Rep. Patrick J Verschoore

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:

55 ILCS 5/5-1006.7 new

Amends the Counties Code. Authorizes counties to impose, after referendum approval, a retailers' occupation tax and service occupation tax to be used exclusively for grants to school districts in the county for building or improving school facilities. Sets forth procedures for imposing and collecting the tax and for the distribution of the proceeds by the Department of Revenue. Effective immediately.

FISCAL NOTE ACT MAY APPLY

A BILL FOR

AN ACT concerning local government.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 5. The Counties Code is amended by adding Section 5-1006.7 as follows:

(55 ILCS 5/5-1006.7 new)

Sec. 5-1006.7. Occupation tax for school grants.

(a) The county board of any county may impose a tax upon all persons engaged in the business of selling tangible personal property, other than personal property titled or registered with an agency of this State's government, at retail in the county on the gross receipts from the sales made in the course of business to provide revenue to be used exclusively for grants to school districts in the county for the acquisition, development, construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation, improvement, financing, architectural planning and installation of capital facilities consisting of buildings, structures, and durable equipment, and for the acquisition and improvement of real property and interests in real property required, or expected to be required, in connection therewith. This tax may be imposed only in one-quarter percent increments.

The tax may not be imposed until the question of imposing the tax has been submitted to the electors of the county at a regular election and approved by a majority of the electors voting on the question. The county board must certify the question to the proper election authority, which must submit the question at an election in accordance with the election Code.

The election authority must submit the question in substantially the following form:

Shall (name of county) be authorized to impose a tax at the rate of (insert rate) upon all persons engaged in the business of selling tangible personal property at retail in the county on gross receipts from the sales made in the course of their business to be used exclusively for grants to school districts in the county for building or improving school facilities? The election authority must record the votes as "Yes" or "No".

If a majority of the electors voting on the question vote in the affirmative, then the county may, thereafter, impose the tax.

This additional tax may not be imposed on the sales of food for human consumption that is to be consumed off the premises where it is sold (other than alcoholic beverages, soft drinks, and food which has been prepared for immediate consumption) and prescription and non-prescription medicines, drugs, medical appliances and insulin, urine testing materials, syringes, and needles used by diabetics. The tax imposed by a county under this Section and all civil penalties that may be assessed as an incident of the tax shall be collected and enforced by the Illinois Department of Revenue and deposited into a special fund created for that purpose. The certificate of registration that is issued by the Department to a retailer under the Retailers' Occupation Tax Act shall permit the retailer to engage in a business that is taxable without registering separately with the Department under an ordinance or resolution under this Section. The Department has full power to administer and enforce this Section, to collect all taxes and penalties due under this Section, to dispose of taxes and penalties so collected in the manner provided in this Section, and to determine all rights to credit memoranda arising on account of the erroneous payment of a tax or penalty under this Section. In the administration of and compliance with this Section, the Department and persons who are subject to this Section shall (i) have the same rights, remedies, privileges, immunities, powers, and duties, (ii) be subject to the same conditions, restrictions, limitations, penalties, and definitions of terms, and (iii) employ the same modes of procedure as are prescribed in Sections 1, 1a, 1a-1, 1d, 1e, 1f, 1i, 1j, 1k, 1m, 1n, 2 through 2-70 (in respect to all provisions contained in those Sections other than the State rate of tax), 2a, 2b, 2c, 3 (except provisions relating to transaction returns and quarter monthly payments), 4, 5, 5a, 5b, 5c, 5d, 5e, 5f, 5g, 5h, 5i, 5j, 5k, 5l, 6, 6a, 6b, 6c, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 11a, 12, and 13 of the Retailers' Occupation Tax Act and Section 3-7 of the Uniform Penalty and Interest Act as if those provisions were set forth in this Section. Persons subject to any tax imposed under the authority granted in this Section may reimburse themselves for their sellers' tax liability by separately stating the tax as an additional charge, which charge may be stated in combination, in a single amount, with State tax which sellers are required to collect under the Use Tax Act, pursuant to such bracketed schedules as the Department may prescribe. Whenever the Department determines that a refund should be made under this Section to a claimant instead of issuing a credit memorandum, the Department shall notify the State Comptroller, who shall cause the order to be drawn for the amount specified and to the person named in the notification from the Department. The refund shall be paid by the State Treasurer out of the County Public Safety or Transportation Retailers' Occupation Tax Fund.

(b) If a tax has been imposed under subsection (a), then a service occupation tax must also be imposed at the same rate upon all persons engaged, in the county, in the business of making sales of service, who, as an incident to making those sales of service, transfer tangible personal property within the county as an incident to a sale of service. The proceeds of the tax under this subsection (b) must be used only for the same purposes as the tax under subsection (a).

This tax may not be imposed on sales of food for human consumption that is to be consumed off the premises where it is sold (other than alcoholic beverages, soft drinks, and food prepared for immediate consumption) and prescription and non-prescription medicines, drugs, medical appliances and insulin, urine testing materials, syringes, and needles used by diabetics. The tax imposed under this subsection and all civil penalties that may be assessed as an incident thereof shall be collected and enforced by the Department of Revenue. The Department has full power to administer and enforce this subsection; to collect all taxes and penalties due hereunder; to dispose of taxes and penalties so collected in the manner hereinafter provided; and to determine all rights to credit memoranda arising on account of the erroneous payment of tax or penalty hereunder. In the administration of, and compliance with this subsection, the Department and persons who are subject to this paragraph shall (i) have the same rights, remedies, privileges, immunities, powers, and duties, (ii) be subject to the same conditions, restrictions, limitations, penalties, exclusions, exemptions, and definitions of terms, and (iii) employ the same modes of procedure as are prescribed in Sections 2 (except that the reference to State in the definition of supplier maintaining a place of business in this State shall mean the county), 2a, 2b, 2c, 3 through 3-50 (in respect to all provisions therein other than the State rate of tax), 4 (except that the reference to the State shall be to the county), 5, 7, 8 (except that the jurisdiction to which the tax shall be a debt to the extent indicated in that Section 8 shall be the county), 9 (except as to the disposition of taxes and penalties collected), 10, 11, 12 (except the reference therein to Section 2b of the Retailers' Occupation Tax Act), 13 (except that any reference to the State shall mean the county), Section 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20 of the Service Occupation Tax Act and Section 3-7 of the Uniform Penalty and Interest Act, as fully as if those provisions were set forth herein. Persons subject to any tax imposed under the authority granted in this subsection may reimburse themselves for their serviceman's tax liability by separately stating the tax as an additional charge, which charge may be stated in combination, in a single amount, with State tax that servicemen are authorized to collect under the Service Use Tax Act, in accordance with such bracket schedules as the Department may prescribe. Whenever the Department determines that a refund should be made under this subsection to a claimant instead of issuing a credit memorandum, the Department shall notify the State Comptroller, who shall cause the warrant to be drawn for the amount specified, and to the person named, in the notification from the Department. The refund shall be paid by the State Treasurer out of the County Public Safety or Transportation Retailers' Occupation Fund. Nothing in this subsection shall be construed to authorize the county to impose a tax upon the privilege of engaging in any business which under the Constitution of the United States may not be made the subject of taxation by the State.

(c) The Department shall immediately pay over to the State Treasurer, ex officio, as trustee, all taxes and penalties collected under this Section to be deposited into the County School Facility Retailers' Occupation Tax Fund, which shall be an unappropriated trust fund held outside of the State treasury.

On or before the 25th day of each calendar month, the Department shall prepare and certify to the Comptroller the disbursement of stated sums of money to the counties from which retailers have paid taxes or penalties to the Department during the second preceding calendar month. The amount to be paid to each county, and deposited by the county into its special fund created for the purposes of this Section, must be the amount (not including credit memoranda) collected under this Section during the second preceding calendar month by the Department plus an amount that the Department determines is necessary to offset any amounts that were erroneously paid to a different taxing body and not including (i) an amount equal to the amount of refunds made during the second preceding calendar month by the Department on behalf of the county and (ii) any amount that the Department determines is necessary to offset any amounts that were payable to a different taxing body but were erroneously paid to the county. Within 10 days after receipt by the Comptroller of the disbursement certification to the counties provided for in this Section to be given to the Comptroller by the Department, the Comptroller shall cause the orders to be drawn for the respective amounts in accordance with directions contained in the certification.

In addition to the disbursement required by the preceding paragraph, an allocation must be made in March of each year to each county that received more than $500,000 in disbursements under the preceding paragraph in the preceding calendar year. The allocation must be in an amount equal to the average monthly distribution made to each such county under the preceding paragraph during the preceding calendar year (excluding the 2 months of highest receipts). The distribution made in March of each year subsequent to the year in which an allocation was made pursuant to this paragraph and the preceding paragraph must be reduced by the amount allocated and disbursed under this paragraph in the preceding calendar year. The Department shall prepare and certify to the Comptroller for disbursement the allocations made in accordance with this paragraph.

(d) For the purpose of determining the local governmental unit whose tax is applicable, a retail sale by a producer of coal or another mineral mined in Illinois is a sale at retail at the place where the coal or other mineral mined in Illinois is extracted from the earth. This paragraph does not apply to coal or another mineral when it is delivered or shipped by the seller to the purchaser at a point outside Illinois so that the sale is exempt under the United States Constitution as a sale in interstate or foreign commerce.

(e) Nothing in this Section may be construed to authorize a county to impose a tax upon the privilege of engaging in any business that under the Constitution of the United States may not be made the subject of taxation by this State.

(f) If a county imposes a tax under this Section, then the county board may, by ordinance, discontinue or lower the rate of the tax. If the county board lowers the tax rate or discontinues the tax, a referendum must be held in accordance with subsection (a) of this Section in order to increase the rate of the tax or to reimpose the discontinued tax.

(g) The results of any election that authorizes a proposition to impose a tax under this Section or to change the rate of the tax, or any ordinance that lowers the rate or discontinues the tax, must be certified by the county clerk and filed with the Illinois Department of Revenue either (i) on or before the first day of April, whereupon the Department shall proceed to administer and enforce the tax as of the first day of July next following the filing; or (ii) on or before the first day of October, whereupon the Department shall proceed to administer and enforce the tax as of the first day of January next following the filing.

(g) When certifying the amount of a monthly disbursement to a county under this Section, the Department shall increase or decrease the amounts by an amount necessary to offset any miscalculation of previous disbursements. The offset amount is the amount erroneously disbursed within the previous 6 months from the time a miscalculation is discovered.

Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon becoming law.