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 9  AN ACT amending the homestead property tax refund act; amending
10    K.S.A. 1996 Supp. 79-4502 and repealing the existing section.
11
12  Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Kansas:
13    Section 1.  K.S.A. 1996 Supp. 79-4502 is hereby amended to read as
14  follows: 79-4502. As used in this act, unless the context clearly indicates
15  otherwise:
16    (a)  ``Income'' means the sum of adjusted gross income under the
17  Kansas income tax act, maintenance, support money, cash public assis-
18  tance and relief (not including any refund granted under this act), the
19  gross amount of any pension or annuity (including all monetary retire-
20  ment benefits from whatever source derived, including but not limited
21  to, railroad retirement benefits, all payments received under the federal
22  social security act and veterans disability pensions), all dividends and in-
23  terest from whatever source derived not included in adjusted gross in-
24  come, workers compensation and the gross amount of ``loss of time'' in-
25  surance. It does not include gifts from nongovernmental sources or
26  surplus food or other relief in kind supplied by a governmental agency.
27    (b)  ``Household'' means a claimant, a claimant and spouse who oc-
28  cupy the homestead or a claimant and one or more individuals not related
29  as husband and wife who together own or rent and occupy a homestead.
30    (c)  ``Household income'' means all income received by all persons of
31  a household in a calendar year while members of such household.
32    (d)  ``Homestead'' means the dwelling, or any part thereof, whether
33  owned or rented, which is occupied as a residence by the household and
34  so much of the land surrounding it, as defined as a home site for ad
35  valorem tax purposes, and may consist of a part of a multi-dwelling or
36  multi-purpose building and a part of the land upon which it is built or a
37  manufactured home or mobile home and the land upon which it is situ-
38  ated. ``Owned'' includes a vendee in possession under a land contract, a
39  life tenant, a beneficiary under a trust and one or more joint tenants or
40  tenants in common.
41    (e)  ``Claimant'' means a person who has filed a claim under the pro-
42  visions of this act and was, during the entire calendar year preceding the
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 1  year in which such claim was filed for refund under this act, except as
 2  provided in K.S.A. 79-4503, and amendments thereto, both domiciled in
 3  this state and was: (1) A person having a disability; (2) a person who is 55
 4  years of age or older or (3) a person other than a person included under
 5    (1) or (2) having one or more dependent children under 18 years of age
 6  residing at the person's homestead during the calendar year immediately
 7  preceding the year in which a claim is filed under this act.
 8    When a homestead is occupied by two or more individuals and more
 9  than one of the individuals is able to qualify as a claimant, the individuals
10  may determine between them as to whom the claimant will be. If they
11  are unable to agree, the matter shall be referred to the secretary of rev-
12  enue whose decision shall be final.
13    (f)  ``Property taxes accrued'' means property taxes, exclusive of special
14  assessments, delinquent interest and charges for service, levied on a clai-
15  mant's homestead in 1979 or any calendar year thereafter by the state of
16  Kansas and the political and taxing subdivisions of the state. When a
17  homestead is owned by two or more persons or entities as joint tenants
18  or tenants in common and one or more of the persons or entities is not
19  a member of claimant's household, ``property taxes accrued'' is that part
20  of property taxes levied on the homestead that reflects the ownership
21  percentage of the claimant's household. For purposes of this act, property
22  taxes are ``levied'' when the tax roll is delivered to the local treasurer with
23  the treasurer's warrant for collection. When a claimant and household
24  own their homestead part of a calendar year, ``property taxes accrued''
25  means only taxes levied on the homestead when both owned and occupied
26  as a homestead by the claimant's household at the time of the levy, mul-
27  tiplied by the percentage of 12 months that the property was owned and
28  occupied by the household as its homestead in the year. When a house-
29  hold owns and occupies two or more different homesteads in the same
30  calendar year, property taxes accrued shall be the sum of the taxes allo-
31  cable to those several properties while occupied by the household as its
32  homestead during the year. Whenever a homestead is an integral part of
33  a larger unit such as a multi-purpose or multi-dwelling building, property
34  taxes accrued shall be that percentage of the total property taxes accrued
35  as the value of the homestead is of the total value. For the purpose of
36  this act, the word ``unit'' refers to that parcel of property covered by a
37  single tax statement of which the homestead is a part.
38    (g)  ``Disability'' means:
39    (1)  Inability to engage in any substantial gainful activity by reason of
40  any medically determinable physical or mental impairment which can be
41  expected to result in death or has lasted or can be expected to last for a
42  continuous period of not less than 12 months, and an individual shall be
43  determined to be under a disability only if the physical or mental im-
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 1  pairment or impairments are of such severity that the individual is not
 2  only unable to do the individual's previous work but cannot, considering
 3  age, education and work experience, engage in any other kind of sub-
 4  stantial gainful work which exists in the national economy, regardless of
 5  whether such work exists in the immediate area in which the individual
 6  lives or whether a specific job vacancy exists for the individual, or whether
 7  the individual would be hired if application was made for work. For pur-
 8  poses of the preceding sentence (with respect to any individual), ``work
 9  which exists in the national economy'' means work which exists in signif-
10  icant numbers either in the region where the individual lives or in several
11  regions of the country; for purposes of this subsection, a ``physical or
12  mental impairment'' is an impairment that results from anatomical, phys-
13  iological or psychological abnormalities which are demonstrable by med-
14  ically acceptable clinical and laboratory diagnostic techniques; or
15    (2)  blindness and inability by reason of blindness to engage in sub-
16  stantial gainful activity requiring skills or abilities comparable to those of
17  any gainful activity in which the individual has previously engaged with
18  some regularity and over a substantial period of time.
19    (h)  ``Blindness'' means central visual acuity of 20/200 or less in the
20  better eye with the use of a correcting lens. An eye which is accompanied
21  by a limitation in the fields of vision such that the widest diameter of the
22  visual field subtends an angle no greater than 20 degrees shall be consid-
23  ered for the purpose of this paragraph as having a central visual acuity of
24  20/200 or less.
25    (i)  ``Rent constituting property taxes accrued'' means 15% 25% of the
26  gross rent actually paid in cash or its equivalent in 1979 or any taxable
27  year thereafter by a claimant and claimant's household solely for the right
28  of occupancy of a Kansas homestead on which ad valorem property taxes
29  were levied in full for that year. When a household occupies two or more
30  different homesteads in the same calendar year, rent constituting prop-
31  erty taxes accrued shall be computed by adding the rent constituting
32  property taxes accrued for each property rented by the household while
33  occupied by the household as its homestead during the year.
34    (j)  ``Gross rent'' means the rental paid at arm's length solely for the
35  right of occupancy of a homestead or space rental paid to a landlord for
36  the parking of a mobile home, exclusive of charges for any utilities, serv-
37  ices, furniture and furnishings or personal property appliances furnished
38  by the landlord as a part of the rental agreement, whether or not expressly
39  set out in the rental agreement. Whenever the director of taxation finds
40  that the landlord and tenant have not dealt with each other at arms length
41  and that the gross rent charge was excessive, the director may adjust the
42  gross rent to a reasonable amount for the purposes of the claim.
43    Sec. 2.  K.S.A. 1996 Supp. 79-4502 is hereby repealed.
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 1    Sec. 3.  This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its
 2  publication in the statute book.