SB 321

Under current law, an individual income tax check-off procedure exists that

allows an individual who files a return to designate any amount of additional

payment or any amount of a refund due for the endangered resources program.

Similar checkoffs exist to provide payments to several other programs, including a

veterans trust fund, prostate cancer research, multiple sclerosis programs, a fire

fighters memorial, which is temporary and expires after $400,000 is designated, and

a breast cancer research program, and to provide a donation to a professional football

stadium district.

For taxable years beginning after December 31, 2011, taxpayers may not have

the opportunity to make such a designation to more than ten checkoffs, not including

temporary checkoffs, and no temporary checkoffs may be created after December 31,

2011. The bill also prohibits the Department of Revenue (DOR) from placing more

than ten checkoffs on the income tax form, and repeals the current law provision that

requires DOR to highlight certain checkoffs with a symbol. Other than a checkoff

created in a bill that is introduced in both houses of the legislature before June 1,

2011, if any checkoff is created after December 31, 2011, and before January 1, 2015,

it may not appear on the tax form, and no designations may be made to the checkoff,

before January 1, 2015.

Beginning in September 2014, and every two years thereafter, the bill requires

the secretary of revenue to rank the checkoffs in order of the amount of designations

received during the previous two-year period.

If more than 11 checkoffs exist, not including temporary checkoffs, only the top

eight checkoffs, in terms of designations received, may appear on the tax form for the

next two years, and the ninth and tenth places on the tax form will be taken by

checkoffs that haven't received any designations during the previous two-year

period. The new checkoffs that appear on the form will be the oldest checkoffs, based

on the date on which such a checkoff was added to a list of eligible checkoffs by DOR

and by the date on which a checkoff took effect.