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AN ACT amending the homestead property tax refund act; amending
  K.S.A. 79-4505 and 79-4508 and K.S.A. 1996 Supp. 79-4502 and re-
  pealing the existing sections; also repealing K.S.A. 79-4520.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Kansas:
  Section 1.  K.S.A. 1996 Supp. 79-4502 is hereby amended to read as
follows: 79-4502. As used in this act, unless the context clearly indicates
otherwise:
  (a)  ``Income'' means the sum of adjusted gross income under the
Kansas income tax act, maintenance, support money, cash public assis-
tance and relief (not including any refund granted under this act), the
gross amount of any pension or annuity (including all monetary retire-
ment benefits from whatever source derived, including but not limited
to, railroad retirement benefits, all payments received under the federal
social security act and veterans disability pensions), all dividends and in-
terest from whatever source derived not included in adjusted gross in-
come, workers compensation and the gross amount of ``loss of time'' in-
surance. It does not include gifts from nongovernmental sources or
surplus food or other relief in kind supplied by a governmental agency,
nor shall net operating losses and net capital losses be considered in the
determination of income.
  (b)  ``Household'' means a claimant, a claimant and spouse who oc-
cupy the homestead or a claimant and one or more individuals not related
as husband and wife who together own or rent and occupy a homestead.
  (c)  ``Household income'' means all income received by all persons of
a household in a calendar year while members of such household.
  (d)  ``Homestead'' means the dwelling, or any part thereof, whether
owned or rented, which is occupied as a residence by the household and
so much of the land surrounding it, as defined as a home site for ad
valorem tax purposes, and may consist of a part of a multi-dwelling or
multi-purpose building and a part of the land upon which it is built or a
manufactured home or mobile home and the land upon which it is situ-
ated. ``Owned'' includes a vendee in possession under a land contract, a
life tenant, a beneficiary under a trust and one or more joint tenants or
tenants in common.
  (e)  ``Claimant'' means a person who has filed a claim under the pro-
visions of this act and was, during the entire calendar year preceding the
year in which such claim was filed for refund under this act, except as
provided in K.S.A. 79-4503, and amendments thereto, both domiciled in
this state and was: (1) A person having a disability; (2) a person who is 55
years of age or older or (3) a person other than a person included under
  (1) or (2) having one or more dependent children under 18 years of age
residing at the person's homestead during the calendar year immediately
preceding the year in which a claim is filed under this act.
  When a homestead is occupied by two or more individuals and more
than one of the individuals is able to qualify as a claimant, the individuals
may determine between them as to whom the claimant will be. If they
are unable to agree, the matter shall be referred to the secretary of rev-
enue whose decision shall be final.
  (f)  ``Property taxes accrued'' means property taxes, exclusive of special
assessments, delinquent interest and charges for service, levied on a clai-
mant's homestead in 1979 or any calendar year thereafter by the state of
Kansas and the political and taxing subdivisions of the state. When a
homestead is owned by two or more persons or entities as joint tenants
or tenants in common and one or more of the persons or entities is not
a member of claimant's household, ``property taxes accrued'' is that part
of property taxes levied on the homestead that reflects the ownership
percentage of the claimant's household. For purposes of this act, property
taxes are ``levied'' when the tax roll is delivered to the local treasurer with
the treasurer's warrant for collection. When a claimant and household
own their homestead part of a calendar year, ``property taxes accrued''
means only taxes levied on the homestead when both owned and occupied
as a homestead by the claimant's household at the time of the levy, mul-
tiplied by the percentage of 12 months that the property was owned and
occupied by the household as its homestead in the year. When a house-
hold owns and occupies two or more different homesteads in the same
calendar year, property taxes accrued shall be the sum of the taxes allo-
cable to those several properties while occupied by the household as its
homestead during the year. Whenever a homestead is an integral part of
a larger unit such as a multi-purpose or multi-dwelling building, property
taxes accrued shall be that percentage of the total property taxes accrued
as the value of the homestead is of the total value. For the purpose of
this act, the word ``unit'' refers to that parcel of property covered by a
single tax statement of which the homestead is a part.
  (g)  ``Disability'' means:
  (1)  Inability to engage in any substantial gainful activity by reason of
any medically determinable physical or mental impairment which can be
expected to result in death or has lasted or can be expected to last for a
continuous period of not less than 12 months, and an individual shall be
determined to be under a disability only if the physical or mental im-
pairment or impairments are of such severity that the individual is not
only unable to do the individual's previous work but cannot, considering
age, education and work experience, engage in any other kind of sub-
stantial gainful work which exists in the national economy, regardless of
whether such work exists in the immediate area in which the individual
lives or whether a specific job vacancy exists for the individual, or whether
the individual would be hired if application was made for work. For pur-
poses of the preceding sentence (with respect to any individual), ``work
which exists in the national economy'' means work which exists in signif-
icant numbers either in the region where the individual lives or in several
regions of the country; for purposes of this subsection, a ``physical or
mental impairment'' is an impairment that results from anatomical, phys-
iological or psychological abnormalities which are demonstrable by med-
ically acceptable clinical and laboratory diagnostic techniques; or
  (2)  blindness and inability by reason of blindness to engage in sub-
stantial gainful activity requiring skills or abilities comparable to those of
any gainful activity in which the individual has previously engaged with
some regularity and over a substantial period of time.
  (h)  ``Blindness'' means central visual acuity of 20/200 or less in the
better eye with the use of a correcting lens. An eye which is accompanied
by a limitation in the fields of vision such that the widest diameter of the
visual field subtends an angle no greater than 20 degrees shall be consid-
ered for the purpose of this paragraph as having a central visual acuity of
20/200 or less.
  (i)  ``Rent constituting property taxes accrued'' means 15% of the gross
rent actually paid in cash or its equivalent in 1979 or any taxable year
thereafter by a claimant and claimant's household solely for the right of
occupancy of a Kansas homestead on which ad valorem property taxes
were levied in full for that year. When a household occupies two or more
different homesteads in the same calendar year, rent constituting prop-
erty taxes accrued shall be computed by adding the rent constituting
property taxes accrued for each property rented by the household while
occupied by the household as its homestead during the year.
  (j)  ``Gross rent'' means the rental paid at arm's length solely for the
right of occupancy of a homestead or space rental paid to a landlord for
the parking of a mobile home, exclusive of charges for any utilities, serv-
ices, furniture and furnishings or personal property appliances furnished
by the landlord as a part of the rental agreement, whether or not expressly
set out in the rental agreement. Whenever the director of taxation finds
that the landlord and tenant have not dealt with each other at arms length
and that the gross rent charge was excessive, the director may adjust the
gross rent to a reasonable amount for the purposes of the claim.
  Sec. 2.  K.S.A. 79-4505 is hereby amended to read as follows: 79-
4505. Except as provided in K.S.A. 79-4517, and amendments thereto, no
claim in respect of property taxes levied in any year shall be paid or
allowed unless such claim is actually filed with and in the possession of
the department of revenue on or before October April 15 of the year
next succeeding the year in which said taxes were levied.
  Sec. 3.  K.S.A. 79-4508 is hereby amended to read as follows: 79-
4508. The amount of any claim pursuant to this act shall be computed by
deducting the amount computed under column (2) from the amount of
claimant's property tax accrued and/or rent constituting property tax ac-
crued.
(1)                          (2)
Claimants householdincome    Deduction from property tax accruedand/or rent
     constituting
At least      But not more than      property tax accrued
$0            $3,000                 0                                      
$3,000.0      3,500                  1% of income in excess of $3,000       
3,500.01      4,000                  $ 5 plus 2% of income in excess of $3,500
4,000.01      4,500                  $ 15 plus 3% of income in excess of
     $4,000
4,500.01      7,000                  $ 30 plus 4% of income in excess of
     $4,500

7,000.01                             $130 plus 41/2% of income in excess of
     $7,000
$0            $3,000                 $0                                     
3,001         4,000                  12% of income                          
4,001         25,000                 12% of income plus 4% of every $1,000, or
     frac-tion thereof,  of income in excess of $4,001
  The director of taxation shall prepare a table under which claims under
this act shall be determined. The amount of claim for each bracket shall
be computed only to the nearest one dollar ($1) $1.
  The claimant may elect not to record the amount claimed on the claim.
The claim allowable to persons making this election shall be computed
by the department which shall notify the claimant by mail of the amount
of the allowable claim.
  Sec. 4.  K.S.A. 79-4505, 79-4508 and 79-4520 and K.S.A. 1996 Supp.
79-4502 are hereby repealed.
  Sec. 5.  This act shall take effect and be in force from and after Oc-
tober 16, 1997, and its publication in the statute book.