1 BEFORE THE CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF EQUALIZATION 2 450 N STREET 3 SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA 4 5 6 7 8 9 REPORTER'S TRANSCRIPT 10 APRIL 28, 2015 11 12 13 14 15 16 BUSINESS TAXES COMMITTEE 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 REPORTED BY: Kathleen Skidgel 28 CSR NO. 9039 1 1 P R E S E N T 2 3 For the Board of Equalization: Diane L. Harkey 4 Chair 5 Jerome E. Horton Member 6 Sen. George Runner (Ret.) 7 Member 8 Fiona Ma, CPA Member 9 Yvette Stowers 10 Appearing for Betty T. Yee, State Controller 11 (per Government Code Section 7.9) 12 13 Joann Richmond Chief 14 Board Proceedings Division 15 16 For the Board of Equalization Staff: Susanne Buehler 17 Chief, Tax Policy Division 18 Sales and Use Tax Department 19 Monica Silva 20 Tax Counsel III Legal Department 21 22 ---oOo--- 23 24 25 26 27 28 2 1 450 N STREET 2 SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA 3 APRIL 28, 2015 4 ---oOo--- 5 MS. RICHMOND: Our next item on this 6 morning's agenda -- or, excuse me, this afternoon's 7 agenda is the Business Taxes Committee. Ms. Harkey 8 is the Chair of that committee. 9 Ms. Harkey. 10 MS. HARKEY: Thank you. I call the 11 meeting -- Business Taxes Committee meeting to 12 order. 13 The first item is a very grave item on the 14 agenda, Regulation 1505, Morticians. 15 Staff, would you proceed? Thank you. 16 MS. BUEHLER: Good afternoon. I am Susanne 17 Buehler with the Sales and Use Tax Department. With 18 me today is Ms. Monica Silva from our Legal 19 Department. 20 We have one agenda item for your 21 consideration this morning. Staff requests your 22 approval and authorization to publish proposed 23 amendments to Sales and Use Tax Regulation 1505, 24 Morticians. The proposed amendments update the 25 regulation to reflect current industry practices and 26 include changes to general information, tax rates, 27 examples, and the additions of new definitions for 28 clarity. 3 1 We'd be happy to answer any questions you 2 may have on this topic. 3 MS. HARKEY: Thank you. 4 Members, are there any public speakers? 5 Any Member comments? 6 MR. HORTON: Madam Chair, if I may. 7 MS. HARKEY: Yes. 8 MR. HORTON: The description of the items, 9 those are the items that they can sell, or did I -- 10 MS. BUEHLER: Are -- are you referring to 11 the DVDs, sir? 12 MR. HORTON: The DVD -- well, the example, 13 just in general, providing examples in the -- 14 MS. BUEHLER: For example, some of them do 15 provide DVDs of, uh, either the ceremony or other 16 activities surrounding the funeral services. And 17 when that's included in the price, that's exempt. 18 When they have other sales of them, separately 19 stated, they are taxable. 20 MR. HORTON: Okay. All right. 21 MS. HARKEY: It can be a package deal. 22 MR. HORTON: Yeah. Well -- 23 Okay. I'm going to leave this one alone. 24 Thank you very much. Appreciate it. 25 MS. HARKEY: Any other questions, comments 26 from the Members? 27 Okay. Do I have a motion? 28 MR. HORTON: So moved. 4 1 MS. HARKEY: Second? 2 MS. MA: Second. 3 MS. HARKEY: Second. Motion by Chairman -- 4 Chairman Horton. Second by Fiona Ma, Ms. Ma. 5 And is there any objection? 6 Okay. Passes without objection. 7 Thank you very much. 8 MS. BUEHLER: Thank you. 9 MS. HARKEY: If there are no further 10 comments, that concludes the Business Tax Committee 11 for the day. 12 ---oOo--- 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 5 1 REPORTER'S CERTIFICATE 2 3 State of California ) 4 ) ss 5 County of Sacramento ) 6 7 I, KATHLEEN SKIDGEL, Hearing Reporter for 8 the California State Board of Equalization certify 9 that on April 28, 2015 I recorded verbatim, in 10 shorthand, to the best of my ability, the 11 proceedings in the above-entitled hearing; that I 12 transcribed the shorthand writing into typewriting; 13 and that the preceding pages 1 through 5 constitute 14 a complete and accurate transcription of the 15 shorthand writing. 16 17 Dated: May 4, 2015 18 19 20 ____________________________ 21 KATHLEEN SKIDGEL 22 Hearing Reporter 23 24 25 26 27 28 6