Senate Bill 1868c1
CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.
    Florida Senate - 2000                           CS for SB 1868
    By the Committee on Fiscal Resource and Senators Thomas,
    Bronson, Childers, Rossin, Saunders, Grant, Sebesta,
    Brown-Waite, Casas, Diaz-Balart, Cowin, Mitchell and Dawson
    314-2079-00
  1                      A bill to be entitled
  2         An act relating to tax on sales, use, and other
  3         transactions; amending s. 212.02, F.S.;
  4         defining "agricultural production"; amending s.
  5         212.08, F.S.; revising application of the
  6         partial exemption for self-propelled,
  7         power-drawn, or power-driven farm equipment
  8         used exclusively on a farm or in a forest in
  9         specified activities and including rental or
10         lease of such equipment in such exemption;
11         reducing the rate of tax on such equipment;
12         amending s. 212.12, F.S., relating to
13         promulgation of tax brackets by the Department
14         of Revenue, to conform; providing an effective
15         date.
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17  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
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19         Section 1.  Subsection (34) is added to section 212.02,
20  Florida Statutes, to read:
21         212.02  Definitions.--The following terms and phrases
22  when used in this chapter have the meanings ascribed to them
23  in this section, except where the context clearly indicates a
24  different meaning:
25         (34)  "Agricultural production" means the production of
26  plants and animals useful to humans, including the
27  preparation, planting, cultivating, or harvesting of these
28  products or any other practices necessary to accomplish
29  production through the harvest phase, and includes
30  aquaculture, horticulture, floriculture, viticulture,
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CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.
    Florida Senate - 2000                           CS for SB 1868
    314-2079-00
  1  forestry, dairy, livestock, poultry, bees, and any and all
  2  forms of farm products and farm production.
  3         Section 2.  Subsection (3) of section 212.08, Florida
  4  Statutes, is amended to read:
  5         212.08  Sales, rental, use, consumption, distribution,
  6  and storage tax; specified exemptions.--The sale at retail,
  7  the rental, the use, the consumption, the distribution, and
  8  the storage to be used or consumed in this state of the
  9  following are hereby specifically exempt from the tax imposed
10  by this chapter.
11         (3)  EXEMPTIONS, PARTIAL; CERTAIN FARM
12  EQUIPMENT.--There shall be taxable at the rate of 2.5 3
13  percent the sale, rental, lease, use, consumption, or storage
14  for use in this state of self-propelled, power-drawn, or
15  power-driven farm equipment used exclusively on a farm or in a
16  forest in the agricultural production of plowing, planting,
17  cultivating, or harvesting crops or products as produced by
18  those agricultural industries included in s. 570.02(1), or for
19  fire prevention and suppression work with respect to such
20  crops or products. Harvesting may not be construed to include
21  processing activities. This exemption is not forfeited by
22  moving farm equipment between farms or forests. The rental of
23  self-propelled, power-drawn, or power-driven farm equipment
24  shall be taxed at the rate of 3 percent.
25         Section 3.  Subsection (11) of section 212.12, Florida
26  Statutes, is amended to read:
27         212.12  Dealer's credit for collecting tax; penalties
28  for noncompliance; powers of Department of Revenue in dealing
29  with delinquents; brackets applicable to taxable transactions;
30  records required.--
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CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.
    Florida Senate - 2000                           CS for SB 1868
    314-2079-00
  1         (11)  The department is authorized to provide by rule
  2  the tax amounts and brackets applicable to all taxable
  3  transactions that occur in counties that have a surtax at a
  4  rate other than 1 percent which transactions would otherwise
  5  have been transactions taxable at the rate of 6 percent.
  6  Likewise, the department is authorized to promulgate by rule
  7  the tax amounts and brackets applicable to transactions
  8  taxable at 2.5 3 percent pursuant to s. 212.08(3),
  9  transactions taxable at 7 percent pursuant to s. 212.05(1)(e),
10  and on transactions which would otherwise have been so taxable
11  in counties which have adopted a discretionary sales surtax.
12         Section 4.  This act shall take effect January 1, 2001.
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14          STATEMENT OF SUBSTANTIAL CHANGES CONTAINED IN
                       COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR
15                             SB 1868
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17  The Committee Substitutes eliminates the phase-out of the
    partial exemption for equipment used in agricultural
18  production and replaces it with a reduction in the rate from
    3% to 2.5%, effective January 1, 2001.
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