Right to Protest Penalties

February 7, 2026February 19, 2026

Analyzing FTB’s Response to My 2025 Annual Taxpayer Bill of Rights Requests

The verbal Requests I made at the 2025 Annual Taxpayer Bill of Rights Meeting. The written Requests, which are more detailed, are linked below.

FTB responded to my Annual Taxpayer Bill of Rights (ATBOR) Requests on February 3, 2026, as promised. In the same meeting, I had made two public comments separate from the ATBOR requests. FTB included a response to one of the comments, about Protests, as if it were part of the ATBOR requests.

I’ve learned that with FTB, what they don’t say is far more telling than what they do say. The first public comment that I’d made was asking FTB what they were going to do to correct their issues with the small business collections line. I pointed out long hold times and high hang up rates. FTB did not acknowledge the public comment at the time I made it; they responded with “Next speaker.” And they didn’t respond in writing to that comment, even though I’d sent two follow up emails stating that I expected a response. Per California law, failure to deny constitutes admission: Any material allegation in the complaint that is not effectively denied is deemed admitted. [CCP § 431.20(a); see Hennefer v. Butcher (1986) 182 CA3d 492, 504, 227 CR 318, 325]. This failure to acknowledge my comment is basically an admission that they are intentionally trying to destroy small businesses by making it impossible to resolve “issues.”

Issue 1: In the written version, I asked FTB’s board and executives to stop putting their employees at risk of federal prosecution by having FTB staff cite laws verbatim so that they can no longer deceive people about their unlawful and extra-lawful policies and procedures. In the verbal version, I asked FTB staff to protect themselves from federal prosecution by refusing to comply with unethical and unlawful behavior.

February 7, 2026February 8, 2026

FTB’s 8 Schemes To Overcharge Taxpayers

For those that prefer video, here is a 12-minute speech that I made to State Controller Betty Yee via webinar in December 2020, which sums up the info below. We’re also working on a documentary series exposing the corruption.

The over-simplified explanation of the schemes that I got ensnared in is that the Franchise Tax Board does not apply the money that you send them to your account right away. Then they charge you penalties for “paying late.” Then they over-charge interest on these penalties.

But you have to understand that the reason that they’ve been getting away with their criminal activities is because tax law is complicated, and they work the complex nature of the laws to deceive the public on what the laws actually say.

January 4, 2026February 8, 2026

The Playbook That Government Agencies Use To Get Away With Criminal Schemes

I watched a video about a woman in Arizona (AZ) who had her children stolen by Child Protective Services (CPS).

As I watched the video, my jaw dropped as I realized that CPS in AZ used strikingly similar tactics to violate the laws as the Franchise Tax Board (FTB) in California (CA) used against me. It can’t be a coincidence that my experience was so similar to hers when it was a completely different issue, involving a completely different agency, with completely different circumstances.

I am starting to realize that there must be a playbook of tactics that government agencies use to extract extra revenue for themselves. Obviously, the specific tactics are customized by the agencies, but the general playbook appears to be identical: 1. Lay a trap, 2. Deny due process 3. Rig the justice system and 4. Have other government agencies cover it up.

December 12, 2025February 18, 2026

At the 2025 Board Meeting, I Gave More Details About How FTB’s Schemes Work

February 2025 Update: FTB did respond to the requests.

At the FTB Board Meeting on Monday, December 8, in addition to making my planned speech, I had the opportunity to make a couple of off-the-cuff public comments that helped to put the pieces together of how FTB uses “gross incompetence” as a cover for their bona-fide criminal schemes to overcharge taxpayers, particularly small businesses.

The first comment was in response to a presentation on how FTB was going to improve its customer service by modernizing its contact platform. In the presentation, Mr. Banuelos and Ms. SoRelle did not address the serious problem that FTB has with hanging up on callers, so I asked about it in an 80-second public comment. FTB did not even acknowledge that I had made the comment.

This is the letter from FTB’s Disclosure Department that I had referenced in the video. From page 2:

December 11, 2025December 12, 2025

My 2025 Annual Taxpayer Bill of Rights Speech Where I Called Out The State’s Off-the-Books Spending Account, How they Unlawfully Fund It, and Asked Employees to Stop Complying

This was the speech that I intended to make at the Annual Taxpayer Bill of Rights Meeting. The text, with links to evidence, is at the bottom of the post. The speech is only an overview, a detailed explanation is here.

Background: The Franchise Tax Board is required by law to take suggestions from the public on how to improve policy and procedures, as well as to take suggestions on changes in tax law, at the Annual Taxpayer Bill of Rights hearing. The hearing is usually incorporated in the December Board of Directors meeting as an agenda item.

November 6, 2025November 19, 2025

CharLee Simons had me back to talk about the $10-million program to hunt down illegals, FTB accounting fraud/Betty Yee, voiding bad legislation/oath update, Civil Grand Juries, legislative requests & more

Below are the show notes. I have a few more links to add, particularly with documents that I need to redact and upload. I won’t be able to finish it today, but I wanted to get this posted anyways since most of the links are already in place.

3:30 — Facebook psychological testing: This is an example of a psychology study done via Facebook that was published. Facebook had to pay a $725 million settlement to users for selling personal preference data to a company that made targeted political ads.

7:00 — Allegations that YouTube manipulates the algorithms to keep certain channels/content from getting many views: this article basically says that the Big Tech companies all say these claims are bogus, but does admit that the algorithms are opaque, so no one really knows for sure.

October 12, 2025October 28, 2025

How Will Betty Yee Govern, if Elected?

Betty Yee is currently running for governor of California. During her eight years as State Controller, she was also Chairman of the Board for the California Franchise Tax Board (FTB), which is California’s income tax agency. I followed the work she did regarding FTB very closely, and have kept an eye on her since she left office.

I believe that Ms. Yee is genuinely committed to her ideology, which includes opacity about government spending, increasing government authoritarianism, eliminating constituent’s rights, increasing social welfare programs that are questionable in terms of being ethical and lawful, rewarding corruption and unlawfully overcharging taxpayers. Here are a few of the things she has done over the years that have caused me to form this opinion:

When Betty Yee was State Controller, she stated in court that she wasn’t tracking how she was spending California’s money.

OpentheBooks.com, a government watchdog organization, sued her to open the accounting ledgers to show where our tax dollars were being spent. From the article:

September 8, 2025February 28, 2026

Table of Contents of My FTB Fight

I know that my website can be difficult to navigate, so here is a “FTB Table of Contents”: a list of what I have done with links to more information on each item. I am still working on adding links, so if you need more information ASAP on a particular topic, post a comment and I will make digging that particular info up a priority.

The issue that started it all:

Between the years 2008 and 2016, the Franchise Tax Board, California’s Income Tax Agency, “lost” 16 of the 20 payments that my husband and I had made. When I say “lost,” I mean that they cashed our checks right away, but didn’t apply the money to our account. Instead of locating the “lost fund,” FTB aggressively harassed me to pay the “outstanding balance” and imposed penalties for “paying late.” Here is the list of payments.

The Bona Fide Criminal Schemes I’ve Uncovered:

The 8 schemes to overcharge taxpayers that were documented via court records.

The Legal Process (Statutory Law)

September 7, 2025September 14, 2025

2018 Annual Taxpayer Bill of Rights Requests

As I was updating my latest posts with links to older posts, I realized I had never posted about the 2018 Annual Taxpayer Bill of Rights Meeting. Here is the text of the speech that I made and this is the video:

Due to the time limitations on the speech, the written requests are much more detailed than the oral requests. Here are written requests 1 – 6 and here are 7 – 8. This addendum contains a letter signed by Christopher Calhoun in which I believe he committed fraud and violated my taxpayer rights. This second addendum contains an email chain between myself and Susan Maples in which I believe she committed fraud and violated my taxpayer rights.

Here is FTB’s response. I believe that Susan Maples also committed multiple counts of fraud in this response.

Note: I am not suicidal, I don’t have depression issues, I am a careful driver, I rarely drink alcohol, and I do not use drugs of any kind (not even aspirin). My family lives a wholesome life. If something happens to me or my family that is out of character for us, we were set up by the State of California as revenge for exposing their crimes.

June 5, 2025October 28, 2025

Charlee Simons of “Do Not Talk” Had Me Back to Talk About Oaths, Signing Up Migrants for ITINs and FTB’s Disguising Criminal Schemes as Customer Service Failures

I come on at the 4-minute mark and we greet one another and talk about the previous episode we did together.

At 5:15, I give the background information about oath laws and explain why government employees choose not to take oaths.

At 6:30, I read the names of the legislators that the Secretary of State confirmed do not have a current oath on file for 2025 – 2026. Here are all of the oaths that I have collected. Scroll all the way down to nearly the bottom for the State Assembly and State Senate.

At 9:00, I talk about my next strategy: Since it is illegal to pay government employees who don’t have fully executed oaths, I plan to contact State Controller Malia Cohen to ask her to halt pay on these people and claw back funds already paid.