CA Franchise Tax Board

It was a scorcher with temperatures well into the 100's. Traffic was slow with everyone eyeing their engine temperature. Boy I was so late.Naturally the line at the FTB was nonexistent. So even though I was late for my appointment I instantly advanced to the head of the line. A few friendly words of warning about the dangerously hot conditions outside earned me friendly service and lots of chitchat. The staff member was pleased to accept my paperwork especially after I told him I tried the post office twice and twice there was a non-delivery. Which is how I ended up driving it in personally. He gave me lots of good advice about the next steps in the process and reassured me that there should be no punitive steps taken in spite of all the miscarriages in the delivery of the return.This was the most amazing friendly service I've had in a long time. I get the feeling when the personnel are not under pressure, they would be pleased to render such service routinely. Unfortunately, I suspect conditions are usually quite crowded. Everyone is aggravated and pleasant experience is far from reality.I wish the FTB well. And I would recommend you persevere if conditions are adverse, it may work to your advantage.

I was pleasantly surprised by how smooth and easy it was to work with the franchise tax board in person. My husband started a business and I was his agent, so I was allowed to speak on behalf of him and the company. The reason my husband started the business was to secure the name of the business, but nothing ever came of it. No business, no bank accounts opened, nothing. It was just a dormant business name from our perspective. Flash forward three years and we're getting a notice from the Secretary of State that we owe the money, which got us thinking about taxes too. When my husband looked up what that meant in terms of the franchise tax board, we were told we would owe a minimum of $800 per year for each year the business was active. They consider "active" to just have the name of the business. That would've meant $2400 to $3200 depending on when they thought the year started. I easily set up my appointment online. I parked on the north side of their building. The City owns that lot, so I did have to pay $2 to park there, which would have been the same had I parked down in that huge pit and walked up. @Park operates machines that allowed me to pay on their app, but I could have also paid at the parking lot machine. The lot also has disabled spots. The FTB was on the second floor, to the left once off the elevator. I checked in for my appointment and then got called 4 minutes later.I let the staff person know my business number, she looked us up and said we owed back taxes. She let me know the tab would be $3200 but then she allowed me to use the fiscal year start date of July 1, which meant a $2400 tab. Still steap for never having operated a business. However, through conversation, the staff person offered that I could file a Voluntary administrative dissolution/cancelation form if we never intend to do business and never did business. I assured her that we say yes to both of those stipulations. I filled out the form and she faxed it to the department that takes care of such things. We're still waiting for the verdict, which can take months due to large volume. It wasn't the FTBs fault that we didn't pay attention to the rules, so I will own that. Therefore, my experience with the FTB was quick, easy and helpful!

I waited 2 hours just to get information on refund for my business. the question was only 30 seconds and 3 minutes for the agent to search and tell me. Then I wanted to ask similar question on another business but she told me I have to call back!

Horrible service today on the Tax Practitioner Hotline ---- ridiculous!On hold for 30 minutes - couldn't get taxpayer's CA withholding amounts unless we gave them old addresses that the client has not lived in for over 3 years, give them multiple names for the same client, could not give any CA WH information unless we gave them former employer name, address EIN and fed wages for each for the past three years (from the IRS transcript), even though we have valid Power of Attorney on file already. Such a huge waste of time today and the taxpayer has to pay us for it! The person today on the phone was not interested in helping AT ALL! We have never has this bad of service from them in the past.In addition:In order to get a simple POA form that was already signed by the client previously, the client had to actually take time out of their work day to call the FTB, wait on hold AGAIN, and confirm that we are their CPAs - after they rejected the POA for no other reason. Why was this simple task even made so difficult? Since this is a new client, this extra work had to be done when the POA form already addresses the taxpayer's intention and permission. MORE waste of time.....for what?It appears that any CPA that wants actual needed information when the have a valid POA will need to drive into the FTB office in their county (if there is one) to request information in person.Are we back in 1962?????

Terrible place . Takes forever to get through all initial things when you call . It'll start ringing , only to tell you they're busy. There isn't an option to stay on the line or a callback . Just an endless loop they created to stall you as long as possible so they rack up these absurd fees. They never sent the first notice , but I did receive the final notice with a nice little extra gift of 135$ .