Related Franchise Tax Board Publications FTB 4058C FTB 4058 FTB 4063 California Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights A Comprehensive Guide California Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights A Guide for Taxpayers - 1988 California Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights 2 A Guide for Taxpayers - 1997
These publications describe your rights as a California taxpayer. To order them, please call: From within the United States (800) 852-5711 Or from outside the United States (916) 845-6500 (Not toll-free) You can write to us at: FRANCHISE TAX BOARD TAX FORMS REQUEST UNIT PO BOX 307 RANCHO CORDOVA CA 95741-0307 You can also visit our Website at: www.ftb.ca.gov. Assistance for persons with disabilities: We comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Persons with hearing or speech impairments please call TTY/TDD (800) 822-6268.
Highlights of California Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights Act of 1999
A Guide for Taxpayers
FTB 4064 (REV 10-2002)
California Franchise Tax Board
In 1988, the California Legislature enacted the Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights. For the first time, legislation spelled out your rights as California taxpayers as well as the Franchise Tax Board’s obligations to you. On July 30, 1996, the federal Taxpayer Bill of Rights 2 was passed, followed a few months later by California’s Taxpayers’ Rights Conformity Legislation. To further guarantee your rights as state taxpayers, California’s lawmakers enacted the Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights Act of 1999. The following are major highlights of this important 1999 legislation. Innocent Spouse Relief If you had no knowledge your spouse underreported the amount of tax due on your jointly filed return, we may not hold you responsible for payment of that deficiency. You may be able to limit your liability on a deficiency from a joint return by electing separate liability if any of the following are true: • You are no longer married. • You are legally separated. • You have been living apart from your spouse for at least 12 months. If you did not file a joint return with your spouse, and you received an assessment of tax on community income, we may not hold you responsible for that liability. We may provide equitable relief if, taking into account all the facts and circumstances, it is unfair to hold the innocent spouse liable for any unpaid tax or deficiency. Employee Relief/Unremitted Withholdings If your employer withholds from your wages an amount ordered by us to pay your delinquent taxes, but does not send the withheld funds to us, your employer may be liable for that amount, plus interest, instead of you.
Offers in Compromise If you have exhausted all methods to pay your full tax liability, you can offer to pay us what you believe is the maximum amount you can ever pay on the debt. If you meet certain requirements and we agree to the amount you offer, we may reduce your liability to that amount. Suspension of Interest/Fail to Notify After October 10, 1999, if you file a timely individual tax return, we must notify you of any changes to your tax liability within 18 months of the date you filed or the return due date, whichever is later. If we do not, we must suspend interest and penalties for the period that begins at the end of 18 months and ends after we provide you with a notice. Special rules apply if the Internal Revenue Service changes your tax liability. Procedures for Imposing Penalties After December 31, 2001, if we send you a notice imposing a penalty, we must include: • The name of the penalty. • The section of law under which we imposed the penalty. • A description of the penalty computation. If you request it, we will provide you with a computation of the penalty. Notice of Interest Charges After December 31, 2001, if we send you a notice for your individual account stating you must pay an amount of interest, we must include the section of law under which we imposed the interest and a description of how we computed it. If you request it, we will provide you with a computation of the interest.
Abatement of Interest/Disaster Areas If you live in a California county or city that the President or Governor has declared a disaster area, you may not be required to pay interest if you file your tax return late. To qualify, you must have suffered a disaster loss, and we must extend the due date for filing your return and paying your income tax. Waiver of Early Withdrawal Penalties If we take money from your retirement plan, including an individual retirement account, to collect your delinquent taxes, and you are subject to an early withdrawal penalty, we will not assess an early withdrawal penalty for California purposes. Installment Agreements If you cannot pay your tax liability in full, you may be eligible to make your payments in installments. If we cannot accept your installment payment offer, you can ask us to review your offer and explain why we did not accept it. While we review it, we cannot take collection action against you for the amount under review. If we accept your offer and you enter into an installment agreement with us, you must file all required tax returns and pay all subsequent taxes timely. We will cancel the agreement if you do not keep your part of it or if we do not mutually agree to a change in the agreement. If we cancel your installment agreement, we will notify you in writing 30 days before doing so and explain why we are canceling it. Notice Include Deadlines We must tell you the last date by which you can protest or appeal certain notices. If you protest or appeal by that date, we consider your protest or appeal as being timely filed.