Amended in Assembly March 26, 2015

California Legislature—2015–16 Regular Session

Assembly Bill No. 814

Introduced by Assembly Member Daly

February 26, 2015

An act to begin delete amend Section 34 of end delete begin insert add Section 39 to end insert the Revenue and Taxation Code, relating to taxation.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 814, as amended, Daly. begin delete Local tax payment. end delete begin insert Tax information: administration. end insert

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

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This bill would require, on or before January 1, 2017, the State Board of Equalization, the Franchise Tax Board, 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, and to submit the study to the Legislature. The 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.

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Under existing law, whenever an amount of money paid by a person to the state includes a sum that can be identified as intended as payment of a locally administered tax that should have been paid directly to a local government within the state, the state is authorized to pay the amount to the local government and notify the payor of its action. However, existing law prohibits this procedure from being followed unless the governing body of the local government has, by resolution, agreed with respect to those payments that a timely payment received by the state will be regarded as a timely payment to the local government concerned, as provided.

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This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to those provisions.

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Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee:  begin delete no end delete begin insert yes end insert . State-mandated local program: no.

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

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begin insert SECTION 1. end insert   

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The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:

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

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(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.

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(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.

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(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.”

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(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.

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(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.

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(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.

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(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.

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begin insert SEC. 2. end insert   

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

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begin insert 39. end insert   

(a) (1) On or before January 1, 2017, 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, determine account balances
and due dates of taxes, remit amounts due, 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. The
feasibility study shall consider the California Tax Service Center
Internet Web site in its analysis.

(2) The feasibility study shall be conducted with the existing
budgets of the board, the Franchise Tax Board, and the
Employment Development Department. An appropriation shall
not be made by the Legislature to fund the feasibility study.

(3) The feasibility study shall be submitted to the Legislature
no later than six months after the study is completed and shall be
submitted in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government
Code.

(4) This subdivision shall become inoperative on January 1,
2020, pursuant to Section 10231.5 of the Government Code.

(b) 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.

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SECTION 1.  

Section 34 of the Revenue and Taxation Code is
amended to read:

34.  

Whenever an amount of money paid by a person to the
state or any of its agencies includes a sum that can be identified
as in fact intended as payment of a locally administered tax that
should have been paid directly to a city, city and county, county
or district within the state, the state or its agency may pay the
amount to the local government entitled thereto and notify the
payor of its action. This procedure, however, shall not be followed
by the state or any of its agencies unless the governing body of
the local government concerned has, by resolution, agreed with
respect to those payments that a timely payment received by the
state or its agency will be regarded as a timely payment to the local
government concerned, and that it will process all claims with
respect to that payment in the same manner as though the payment
had been made to it in the first instance.

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