Sales and Use Tax Exclusion for Advanced Transportation and Alternative Energy Manufacturing Program

SB 71 of 2010 established a sales and use tax exclusion (STE) for eligible projects on property utilized for the design, manufacture, production or assembly of advanced transportation technologies or alternative source (including energy efficiency) products, components, or systems. The California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority (CAEATFA) is administering the program. The STE Program is currently authorized through 2025.

To date, the Program has approved financial assistance for private entities in the following fields: electric vehicle manufacturing, solar photovoltaic manufacturing, landfill gas capture and production, biogas capture and production (dairies and waste water treatment plants), demonstration hydrogen fuel production, electric vehicle battery manufacturing, biomass processing and fuel production, and others.

Eligibility Criteria: § 10033

• Applicants must show the property to be purchased will be used to design, manufacture, produce or assemble an eligible advanced transportation technology or alternative source product – including energy efficiency – component or system.
• This definition includes manufacturers of alternative source electricity generation equipment such as solar panels or wind turbines. But it excludes the purchase of that equipment for power generation.
• The facility must produce benefits to the state of California.
• The applicant must not be found guilty of violating OSHA or a case of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Severe Violator Enforcement Program.

Application Evaluation: § 10033

• Applications that meet the project definition criteria will be evaluated based on criteria developed and specified in the program regulations.
• These evaluation criteria are designed to measure and quantify the fiscal and environmental benefits of the project and to compare the benefits to the cost of the STE.
• Applicants will receive points in the areas of fiscal benefits and environmental benefits which will translate into a numerical score.
• Applications that receive a total of 1,000 or more points and a total environment benefits score of 100 or more points will be recommended to the CAEATFA Board for approval.

 Program Restrictions

• There are no STE minimum or maximum limits for individual projects.
• Applicants will be required to make at least twenty five (25) percent of the purchases identified in their application within one year of application approval.
• All purchases must be made within three years following application approval, unless CAEATFA grants a longer time period.

Prior Use

• CAEATFA will be able to extend the STE to any qualified property for which the participating party can make a representation that there has been no functional use of the qualified property prior to it being conveyed to CAEATFA.

Fees

• Application Fee – equal to .0005 of the total purchase price of qualified property identified in the application. The minimum application fee shall be a minimum of $250 and shall not exceed $10,000. Payment of the fee is required for a submitted application to be considered complete.
• Administrative Fee – equal to .004 of the total purchase price of the qualified property purchased. The administrative fee shall be a minimum of $15,000 and shall not exceed $350,000.

Those interested in participating in the SB 71 Program should contact the California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority.
 

On October 16, 2020, CAEATFA issued a Notice of Emergency Regulations to make STE Program modifications that address the program’s oversubscription for the last two years, the unprecedented economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, incorporate lessons learned from program implementation, add further clarity and specificity in existing regulations provisions, and update and revise regulation and statutory cross-references. The emergency rulemaking package was submitted to the Office of Administrative Law (“OAL”) for review on October 26, 2020. The regulatory action was approved by OAL and became effective upon filing with the Secretary of State on November 4, 2020.