New Arizona Laws: A Short List of Legal and Tax Issues Now in Effect

In Arizona, new state laws can be created in two ways: as the result of a bill that passes both houses of the legislature and is signed by the governor, or by voter approval of an initiative (initiated by the public via petition) or a referendum (referred to the voters by the legislature). While laws can be passed by the legislature or by voters, a state constitutional amendment can be approved only by public vote.

Following is a short list of statutes and one constitutional amendment that have become the law of the land in recent months.

Residential Sales Tax Eliminated. Under a statute that went into effect January 1, residential tenants no longer have to pay the municipal tax on their monthly rent payments, and residential landlords are barred from collecting it. (A January 2025 Kiplinger article provides helpful details.)

In prior years, the tax applied to residential properties that were leased for 30 or more consecutive days. Property owners are still required to register their property with the county assessor to comply with landlord-tenant laws.

Property Tax Refunds for Non-Enforcement of Laws. Proposition 312, approved by voters in November 2024, allows property owners to apply for a property tax refund if the city in which the property is located does not enforce laws meant to restrict, for example, illegal camping, loitering, obstructing public thoroughfares, panhandling, public urination/defecation, public consumption of alcoholic beverages, and possession or use of illegal substances.

Income Tax Withholding on Retirement Distributions. A 2024 law clarifies that elective withholdings on (a) payments from pensions or annuities and (b) distributions from retirement accounts are to be treated as if they were payments of wages by an employer to an employee for a payroll period – if a withholding request is in effect at the time of payment.

State Taxes Paid Via EFT. A taxpayer’s electronic payments will be deemed to have been made at the date and time when the taxpayer successfully authorized an electronic funds transfer, as evidenced by an electronic payment confirmation from their financial institution or the Arizona Department of Revenue.

Youth Businesses: License and Tax Exemptions. A business owner who is younger than 19 is not required to obtain a sales tax license or remit state or local sales taxes if their gross receipts are $10,000 or less for the calendar year.

Minimum Wage Increase. On January 1, Arizona’s minimum wage for private employees increased by $0.35 per hour, to $14.70.

Arizona Border and Immigration Laws. Another 2024 ballot issue, Proposition 314, makes it a misdemeanor for noncitizens to enter Arizona at any location that is not an official port of entry. As of March 2025, Arizona’s active ports of entry are at Fredonia, Page, St. George, Kingman, Topock, Sanders, Teec Nos Pos, Ehrenberg, Parker, San Luis, Yuma, Yuma Business 8, Nogales, Douglas State, Douglas International, and San Simon.

Prop. 314 also authorizes (a) local police to arrest persons who cross illegally and (b) Arizona judges to order deportations. In addition, it is now a class 6 felony for non-citizens to knowingly submit falsified documents when applying for government benefits, increases the penalties for knowingly submitting falsified information to an employer, and increases the penalties for selling fentanyl if the drug then causes a death.

Abortion Rights. In approving Proposition 139, Arizona voters amended the state constitution to establish the right to abort a pregnancy before the point of fetal viability, defined as the point during a pregnancy when there is a significant chance of the survival of the fetus outside of the uterus.

DUI Laws for Rideshare Drivers. For Arizona drivers that work for Uber, Lyft, or any other rideshare companies, the legal blood alcohol limit has been reduced to 0.04%, half of the limit (0.08%) applied to all other categories of drivers.

Life Sentence for Child Sex Traffickers. Proposition 313 requires that any person convicted of child sex trafficking will be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole or release. 

Reselling of Event Tickets. Ticket resellers are prohibited from selling multiple copies of one ticket, reselling tickets before they are available to the public, and not disclosing seat locations prior to the purchase. Additionally, computer bots are no longer able to purchase tickets in bulk using the same IP address or multiple emails to avoid security measures.

Some other interesting new laws vary in their gravity and impact:

• Home cooking for sale. Cooks who register with the Arizona Department of Health Services and pass a food-preparation course can now sell home-made food products that contain meat, provided the products are packaged with a label and disclaimer.
• Flagpole holders. A community association is authorized to limit a member to two exterior wall-mounted flagpole holders.
• Backyard chickens. Cities and counties can no longer prohibit individuals from keeping small numbers of chickens or other fowl in their back yard. You can now raise on your property up to six chickens or other fowl, if your coop enclosures are at least 20 feet away from neighbors and you pick up their droppings (your chickens’, not your neighbors’) twice a week.
• State planet: Pluto. In 1906, Percival Lowell, founder of the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, began the search for what would become the ninth planet in our solar system.

Other Arizona state symbols, previously designated, include the official state amphibian (Arizona tree frog), bird (cactus wren), butterfly (two-tailed swallowtail), dinosaur (Sonorasaurus), drink (lemonade), firearm (Colt single-action revolver), fish (Apache trout), flower (saguaro blossom), fossil (petrified wood), gem (turquoise), mammal (ringtail cat [not a cat]), metal (copper), mineral (wulfenite), neckware (bola tie), nickname (“The Grand Canyon State”), reptile (ridge-nosed rattlesnake), and tree (palo verde).