Amended in Assembly June 25, 2013

Amended in Senate April 18, 2013

Senate Bill No. 582

Introduced by Senator Knight

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(Principal coauthor: Assembly Member Harkey)

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February 22, 2013

An act to add Section 39 to the Revenue and Taxation Code, relating to taxation.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

SB 582, as amended, Knight. Tax information: administration.

Existing law imposes various taxes that are administered by the Franchise Tax Board, the State Board of Equalization, and the Employment Development Department.

This bill would require the Franchise Tax Board, the State Board of Equalization, and the Employment Development Department to collaborate and focus the agencies’ current and future information technology efforts to conduct a feasibility study on the development of a single Internet Web site portal that virtually consolidates the agencies to enable online, self-service access to the agencies, as provided. This bill would also require these agencies, upon a joint determination by the agencies that a need exists to improve cost-effective services to taxpayers and an appropriation by the Legislature, to consolidate forms, applications, and other documents to reduce or eliminate the number of multiple submissions of the same information by taxpayers.

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.  

The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:

(a) California relies on three separate state agencies to administer
and enforce its major taxes.

(b) To obtain assistance and comply with California’s tax laws,
policies, and procedures, many taxpayers must interact with all
three agencies, and frequently with multiple departments within
those agencies.

(c) While this system has performed reasonably well in many
respects, the multiagency nature of the system is prone to certain
inherent problems, difficulties, and inefficiencies, and is
particularly complex for taxpayers required to comply with
California’s tax laws.

(d) Over the past decades, numerous reports have been prepared
and various legislative proposals have been considered on the topic
of coordination and cooperation among these three agencies. The
focus of these efforts range from relatively minor aspects of
increased cooperation to proposals for full consolidation of the
agencies under “one roof.”

(e) Focusing on the customer should be a core element of
California’s tax administration. Taxpayers should not have to
understand complex government structures and relationships in
order to interact with the government, particularly in a sensitive
area like taxes.

(f) The California Tax Service Center, available at
www.taxes.ca.gov, provides an assortment of independent
departmental forms, returns, and links, tied together by a common
homepage on the Internet, and is intended to provide California
taxpayers with resources and educational programs with a goal as
a one-stop tax assistance hub.

(g) The California Tax Service Center can be used to better
serve California’s taxpaying community by virtually consolidating
the three agencies’ operations to enable them to appear as one
unified organization with the goal of providing a seamless
experience for taxpayers in their online interactions with the
agencies.

(h) It is therefore in California’s best interest to develop an
Internet Web-based, taxpayer-focused system that virtually
consolidates the State Board of Equalization, the Franchise Tax
Board, and the Employment Development Department. In
developing a taxpayer-focused system, the fundamental objective
should be a platform that provides an integrated experience for
taxpayers, to enable online self-service access with a single logon
for all three agencies, and to provide pertinent and essential
information that will enable taxpayers to satisfy their payment and
reporting obligations, obtain real-time information pertinent to
their individual accounts, and provide assistance that will enable
taxpayers to achieve optimum compliance with California’s
complex tax system.

SEC. 2.  

Section 39 is added to the Revenue and Taxation Code,
to read:

39.  

The board, the Franchise Tax Board, and the Employment
Development Department shall collaborate and focus their current
and future information technology efforts to conduct a feasibility
study on the development of a single Internet Web-based portal
that virtually consolidates the agencies to enable online, self-service
access through a single logon for taxpayers to electronically file
returns, submit forms or other information, begin delete remit amounts due, end delete
determine account balances and due dates of taxes, begin insert remit amounts
due, end insert identify the status of any appeal, claim for refund, request
for relief of interest or penalty, and any other information the
agencies deem helpful to the taxpayer to assist in compliance with
the state’s tax laws. As part of this effort, upon a joint
determination by the agencies that a need exists to improve
cost-effective services to taxpayers and an appropriation by the
Legislature, these agencies shall also consolidate forms,
applications, and other documents to reduce or eliminate the
number of multiple submissions of the same information by
taxpayers.