California Self-Storage Association Fights Proposed Sales Tax

For Immediate Release          

Contact: Erin King, Executive Director                                  

Phone: (949)783-4130

E-mail: erinking.cssa@gmail.com

Lobbying Firm Hired to Fight 7.5% Excise Tax on Storage

NEWPORT BEACH, CALIFORNIA —April 16, 2012 —The California Self Storage Association (CSSA) and the national Self-Storage Association (SSA) have joined forces to fight a proposed tax being considered in the California legislature this spring. If passed, the 7.5 percent excise tax would be applied to storage use or consumption in the state effective January 1, 2013.

Combining their efforts to fight the proposed tax, the CSSA and SSA have hired a lobbying firm, the efforts of which have already seen positive results. Lobbyists have received assurances from at least one influential legislator that self-storage rents are not a service that he believes are being considered in Assembly Bill 2540. The bill is the result of a bi-partisan group in the California legislature that has been working on an expansion of sales tax in the state to include services.  A two-thirds vote is required in both houses for the sales tax to be applied to some or all services.

"We will continue our lobbying efforts to work with the legislature in California to protect the interests of the self-storage industry in our state,” said Erin King, Executive Director of the CSSA. "We will continue to keep our members informed on the status of this bill.”

In a similar case, Senate Bill 142 was introduced in South Dakota in January. If passed, the bill would have impose a 4 percent sales tax on the gross receipts derived from self-storage unit rentals, and a 4 percent privilege-use tax on the rental payments for use of the property. The bill was killed in the South Dakota Senate earlier this year.

Visit www.californiaselfstorage.org  for more information on the CSSA and its efforts.

About The California Self-Storage Association

Founded in 2002, the California Self Storage Association (CSSA) is the state not-for-profit trade organization dedicated to serving the California Self-Storage industry including owner-operators, facility managers and industry vendors. The CSSA represents some 450 direct member companies that own and operate over 1,200 facilities in California. CSSA direct members range from individual facility owner-operators to multiple-facility operations, to the industry's largest publicly traded Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs).