This bill passed the Senate 21-8 and was not heard in the House.
Senate Bill 42, sponsored by Senator Dan McCay, aims to enact important policy changes for the Tangible Personal Property tax that imposes heavy compliance burdens on business owners.
Those changes cannot take place without an amendment to Utah’s Constitution. So Senator McCay is also sponsoring Senate Joint Resolution 3, which proposes to amend the Utah Constitution to allow the Legislature to exempt tangible personal property from the annual property tax if the property was subject to the sales tax.
Without this amendment, the Legislature is unable to substantially reduce this burden, because the state Constitution calls for the tax and restricts the Legislature’s ability to modify it. It is therefore necessary to secure passage of this amendment—first in the Legislature and then later on the November 2020 ballot.
