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(a) Except as otherwise provided in this Article 29A, for the purposes described in Section 2958, the City imposes an annual Empty Homes Tax on each person that owns a Residential Unit for keeping that Residential Unit Vacant.
(b) The tax on an owner keeping a Residential Unit Vacant for the 2024 tax year shall be as follows:
(1) $2,500 for each Residential Unit with square footage less than 1,000;
(2) $3,500 for each Residential Unit with square footage from 1,000 to 2,000; and
(3) $5,000 for each Residential Unit with square footage greater than 2,000.
(c) The tax on an owner keeping a Residential Unit Vacant for the 2025 tax year, if that owner has not kept that Residential Unit Vacant in the 2024 tax year, shall be as follows:
(1) $2,500 for each Residential Unit with square footage less than 1,000;
(2) $3,500 for each Residential Unit with square footage from 1,000 to 2,000; and
(3) $5,000 for each Residential Unit with square footage greater than 2,000.
(d) The tax on an owner keeping a Residential Unit Vacant for the 2025 tax year, if that owner has kept that Residential Unit Vacant in the 2024 tax year, shall be as follows:
(1) $5,000 for each Residential Unit with square footage less than 1,000;
(2) $7,000 for each Residential Unit with square footage from 1,000 to 2,000; and
(3) $10,000 for each Residential Unit with square footage greater than 2,000.
(e) The tax on an owner keeping a Residential Unit Vacant for the 2026 tax year and subsequent tax years, if that owner has not kept that Residential Unit Vacant in the immediately preceding tax year, shall be as follows:
(1) $2,500 for each Residential Unit with square footage less than 1,000;
(2) $3,500 for each Residential Unit with square footage from 1,000 to 2,000; and
(3) $5,000 for each Residential Unit with square footage greater than 2,000.
(f) The tax on an owner keeping a Residential Unit Vacant for the 2026 tax year and subsequent tax years, if that owner has kept that Residential Unit Vacant in the immediately preceding tax year but has not kept that Residential Unit Vacant in the tax year immediately preceding that tax year, shall be as follows:
(1) $5,000 for each Residential Unit with square footage less than 1,000;
(2) $7,000 for each Residential Unit with square footage from 1,000 to 2,000; and
(3) $10,000 for each Residential Unit with square footage greater than 2,000.
(g) The tax on an owner keeping a Residential Unit Vacant for the 2026 tax year and subsequent tax years, if that owner has kept that Residential Unit Vacant in the immediately preceding tax year and has kept that Residential Unit Vacant in the tax year immediately preceding that tax year, shall be as follows:
(1) $10,000 for each Residential Unit with square footage less than 1,000;
(2) $14,000 for each Residential Unit with square footage from 1,000 to 2,000; and
(3) $20,000 for each Residential Unit with square footage greater than 2,000.
(h) The rates set forth in subsections (c), (d), (e), (f), and (g) of this Section 2953 shall be adjusted annually in accordance with the increase in the Consumer Price Index: All Urban Consumers for the San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose Area for All Items as reported by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, or any successor to that index, as of December 31st of the preceding year, beginning with the 2025 tax year.
(i) The Empty Homes Tax shall be payable by the owner or owners of the Residential Unit kept Vacant. Not more than one tax per Residential Unit shall be imposed under this Section 2953 for a tax year by reason of multiple liable owners. If there are multiple liable owners, each owner shall be jointly and severally liable for the tax, which shall be the highest amount of tax payable by any owner for that Residential Unit for that tax year.
(j) A person shall be liable for the Empty Homes Tax only if that person, while owning a Residential Unit, has kept or is deemed to have kept that Residential Unit unoccupied, uninhabited, or unused, for more than 182 days, whether consecutive or nonconsecutive, in a tax year. In determining whether an owner has kept a Residential Unit Vacant during a tax year, days within any Vacancy Exclusion Period shall be disregarded if that Vacancy Exclusion Period applies to that owner for that Residential Unit, as shall days in which the Residential Unit was not owned by the owner, but the owner shall be deemed to have kept the Residential Unit unoccupied, uninhabited, or unused on all other days that such Residential Unit is unoccupied, uninhabited, or unused during the tax year.
(k) The Empty Homes Tax shall take effect on January 1, 2024. The Empty Homes Tax shall expire on December 31, 2053.
(Added by Proposition M, 11/8/2022, Eff. 12/23/2022, Oper. 1/1/2024)
(a) Each person that is required to pay the Empty Homes Tax shall file a return in the form and manner prescribed by the Tax Collector.
(b) Each person that owns a Residential Unit at any time during a tax year shall file a return for that tax year in the form and manner prescribed by the Tax Collector, unless that person is exempt from the Empty Homes Tax with respect to that Residential Unit under any one of subsections (a) through (d) of Section 2955 or is covered under the Homeowners’ Exemption Period for that Residential Unit for the entire tax year. A person that fails to file the return required by this subsection (b) for a Residential Unit shall be presumed to have kept that Residential Unit Vacant for the tax year for which such return is required. The person who fails to file the required return may rebut the presumption by producing satisfactory evidence that such person did not keep the Residential Unit Vacant during the tax year for which the return is required.
(Added by Proposition M, 11/8/2022, Eff. 12/23/2022, Oper. 1/1/2024; amended by Ord. 224-23, File No. 230898, App. 11/3/2023, Eff. 12/4/2023)
(a) For only so long as and to the extent that the City is prohibited from imposing the Empty Homes Tax, any person upon whom the City is prohibited under the Constitution or laws of the State of California or the Constitution or laws of the United States from imposing the Empty Homes Tax shall be exempt from the Empty Homes Tax.
(b) Any organization that is exempt from income taxation under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, shall be exempt from the Empty Homes Tax.
(c) The City, the State of California, and any county, municipal corporation, district, or other political subdivision of the State shall be exempt from the Empty Homes Tax, except where any constitutional or statutory immunity from taxation is waived or is not applicable.
(d) A person that owns any Residential Unit located in a building with two or fewer Residential Units shall be exempt from the Empty Homes Tax with respect to any Residential Unit located in that building.
(e) For purposes of this Article 29A, the Empty Homes Tax shall not apply with respect to a Residential Unit for any tax year for which any person is liable for the Vacancy Tax imposed under Article 29 of the Business and Tax Regulations Code with respect to that Residential Unit.
(Added by Proposition M, 11/8/2022, Eff. 12/23/2022, Oper. 1/1/2024)
(a) Except as otherwise provided under this Article 29A, the Empty Homes Tax shall be administered pursuant to Article 6 of the Business and Tax Regulations Code.
(b) Transactions with the principal purpose of avoiding or evading all or a portion of the Empty Homes Tax shall be disregarded for purposes of determining the amount of the Empty Homes Tax and whether the Empty Homes Tax is due. In addition to the Empty Homes Tax due as a result of this subsection (b), any owner liable for any Empty Homes Tax as a result of this subsection (b) shall be liable for a penalty in an amount equal to the Empty Homes Tax due as a result of this subsection (b).
(Added by Proposition M, 11/8/2022, Eff. 12/23/2022, Oper. 1/1/2024)
(a) All monies collected under the Empty Homes Tax Ordinance shall be deposited to the credit of the Housing Activation Fund (“Fund”) established in Administrative Code Section 10.100-76. The Fund shall be maintained separate and apart from all other City funds and shall be subject to appropriation. Any balance remaining in the Fund at the close of any fiscal year shall be deemed to have been provided for a special purpose within the meaning of Charter Section 9.113(a) and shall be carried forward and accumulated in the Fund for the purposes described in Section 2958.
(b) Commencing with a report filed no later than February 15, 2026, covering the fiscal year ending on June 30, 2025, the Controller shall file annually with the Board of Supervisors, by February 15 of each year, a report containing the amount of monies collected in and expended from the Fund during the prior fiscal year, the status of any project required or authorized to be funded by Section 2958, and such other information as the Controller, in the Controller’s sole discretion, shall deem relevant to the operation of this Article 29A.
(Added by Proposition M, 11/8/2022, Eff. 12/23/2022, Oper. 1/1/2024)
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