Browse through MW Attorney’s articles revolving around California such as the California Underpayment Penalty, the Estimated Tax Penalty, and more.

Fee Increase for California Installment Agreements

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Starting October 26, the Franchise Tax Board will be raising the fees for installment agreements as follows:

Personal Income Tax Installment Agreements: $34 (previously $20)

Business Entity Installment Agreements: $50 (previously $35)

See the Installment Agreement information page for more information, but note that it has not been updated with the new amounts yet.

Fees are still subject to change (again) without notice.

Extension on CA State Taxes Ends October 17th

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The California Franchise Tax Board (FTB) issued a news release on Friday reminding Californians of the extended tax return deadline and also siting some interesting statistics.

Like the IRS, the California tax authority does cut some slack for procrastinators. And like the IRS automatic extension, the California version also comes to an end on October 17th. Sometimes the tax relief most needed is just some more time. The FTB tries to make it as convenient as possible to both file and pay your state taxes.

Filing CA Taxes

  • ReadyReturns (partially completed returns just waiting for the taxpayer to complete online)
  • CalFile free e-file program
  • other free or fee-based e-file services listed on FTB’s website
  • view wage & income information online with MyFTB Account

Paying CA Taxes

And now for the statistics. This year over 1.5 million Californians requested an automatic extension and will have to file by the October 17th deadline. This actually eases the burden on the state in April by spreading out the work a little more evenly throughout the year. By now California taxpayers have filed more than 14.7 million personal income tax returns of which 11.7 million were e-filed. Also, the state has issued 9.5 million refunds totaling $8.1 billion.

FTB Live Chat

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Starting today the California Franchise Tax Board (FTB) is expanding its Live Chat program to business entity questions. Live Chat is a web-based communication application that was first launched about 6 months ago and is open to both taxpayers and practitioners. It is a quick way to get answers to general state tax questions — quicker, apparently, than waiting on the phone. However, account-specific questions will not be addressed in this manner. If you have questions or issues to address about a specific tax account, you must go through the normal channels.  Live Chat is available 8:00am to 5:00pm Monday – Friday. Check it out here.