BILL NUMBER: AB 814 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 26, 2015
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Daly
FEBRUARY 26, 2015
An act to amend Section 34 of add Section
39 to the Revenue and Taxation Code, relating to taxation.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 814, as amended, Daly. Local tax payment.
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, 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.
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.
This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to those provisions.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no
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. (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.
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.