California’s SCA 4 is a proposed state constitutional amendment that would restore the parent-child and grandparent-grandchild property tax transfer protections that Proposition 19 eliminated in 2021. It has not passed. As of January 2026, the measure sits in a Senate committee, and even if the legislature approves it with the required two-thirds vote in each house, California voters would still have to approve it at a statewide election before anything changes. Until then, Proposition 19 controls every family property transfer in the state.
What SCA 4 Would Change
SCA 4 targets three specific restrictions Proposition 19 put in place. Its legislative findings state that “in 2021, Californians lost a constitutional right they had for nearly 35 years to transfer their home and a limited amount of other property to and from their children without triggering reassessment to current market value and higher property tax bills.”
The Principal Residence Rule
This is the biggest shift the measure would make. Under Proposition 19, a child who inherits a parent’s home only avoids reassessment if the child moves in, claims it as a principal residence, and files for the homeowners’ or disabled veterans’ exemption within one year of the transfer. A child who wants to rent the home out, keep it as a second place, or leave it empty faces a full reassessment to current market value.
SCA 4 would drop the occupancy requirement. A parent’s principal residence could pass to a child without reassessment regardless of what the child does with it afterward, returning to the standard that existed before February 2021.
SCA 4 would not touch Proposition 19’s value cap in the same way, but by restoring the pre-2021 framework for principal residence transfers, the practical effect is a much broader exclusion than families have today. Under current law, even when the child does move in, the exclusion is limited to the property’s existing taxable value plus $1,044,586 (the inflation-adjusted figure for February 16, 2025 through February 15, 2027). Any market value above that ceiling is added to the taxable value.
The $1 Million Exclusion on Other Real Property
Before Proposition 19, parents could transfer up to $1 million in assessed value of real property other than a principal residence — rental homes, vacation properties, commercial buildings — to their children without reassessment. Proposition 19 eliminated that exclusion entirely. Every non-residence property transferred between parent and child is currently reassessed to market value.
SCA 4 would bring the $1 million assessed value exclusion back. Families with multiple properties would again be able to move investment or income real estate to the next generation without an automatic tax reset on the first $1 million of assessed value.
Grandparent-Grandchild Transfers
The same restored protections would extend to grandparent-grandchild transfers, but only when all of the grandchildren’s parents who qualify as children of the grandparents are deceased at the time of transfer. That condition mirrors the rule that existed under Proposition 193 before Proposition 19 took effect.
What SCA 4 Would Not Change
Several things sit outside the measure’s reach, and it is worth being direct about them because the assumptions are common.
Proposition 13 stays fully in place. The 1% property tax rate cap and the 2% annual assessment increase limit are untouched by SCA 4 in either direction.
The expanded base year value transfer for homeowners over 55, severely disabled individuals, and wildfire or natural disaster victims is not part of this measure. That provision, which lets eligible homeowners move their tax base to a replacement home anywhere in California up to three times, came in with Proposition 19 and has been in effect since April 1, 2021. SCA 4 leaves it alone.
The family farm exclusion already exists under current Proposition 19 rules and does not depend on SCA 4 passing. A family farm can transfer between parent and child without a principal residence attached, as long as at least one eligible child continues to operate the property as a family farm. The value ceiling works the same way as for family homes (existing taxable value plus $1,044,586), and no homeowners’ exemption filing is required. If the property later stops qualifying as a family farm, the exclusion is removed and the county assessor sets a new taxable value.
Commercial and industrial property reassessment is not addressed. A separate 2020 measure, Proposition 15, would have required market-value reassessment of commercial properties and was defeated by voters. SCA 4 is about family transfers only.
Where SCA 4 Stands
SCA 4 was originally introduced in the 2023–2024 legislative session and was reintroduced in the 2025–2026 session. As of January 2026, it was re-referred to the Senate Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee. It has not reached the full Senate floor.
As a proposed constitutional amendment, it needs a two-thirds vote in both the Senate and Assembly to be placed on a statewide ballot. Voters would then decide. The current bill text references effective dates of January 1, 2025, but those dates would likely need revision given the measure’s actual timeline.
Nothing in SCA 4 is operative until each of those steps happens. Families planning around property transfers should not assume the measure will pass, and should not delay decisions in the hope that it will.
What to Do While Proposition 19 Still Governs
Every family transfer happening now is subject to Proposition 19’s rules and its filing deadlines. Missing a deadline can mean losing the exclusion entirely, so the mechanics matter.
- File the claim for reassessment exclusion (BOE-19-P) with the county assessor where the property is located within three years of the transfer date, and before the property is transferred to any third party.
- If you are claiming the family home exclusion, at least one eligible transferee must file for the homeowners’ or disabled veterans’ exemption within one year of the transfer and actually live in the property as a principal residence.
- The family home exclusion survives only while the child continues living in the property as a principal residence. Moving out triggers reassessment to a new taxable value as of the next lien date.
- For family farms, no homeowners’ exemption filing is required, but the property must continue to be used as a family farm by at least one eligible transferee.
Processing times at county assessors vary, and late or missing filings can produce supplemental or escape assessment notices with unexpected tax bills. Anyone inheriting property now or in the near future should treat the Proposition 19 deadlines as the operating rules and revisit the analysis only if and when SCA 4 clears the legislature and wins voter approval.
Why the Stakes Are Real
In high-appreciation parts of the state, the gap between a long-held assessed value and current market value is what makes these rules matter. A home purchased decades ago might carry an assessed value of $200,000 while the market value exceeds $2 million. Under Proposition 19’s current rules, if the inheriting child does not move in, the property is reassessed to that market value and the tax bill follows. Under SCA 4, that same child could keep the home as a rental at the old assessed value.
That is the practical shape of what SCA 4 would restore. Whether it gets there depends on the legislature, and then on the voters. Until both happen, Proposition 19 is the rule, and the deadlines it sets are the ones to plan around.