Fighting Corruption at the CA Franchise Tax Board (CA's income tax agency)
This is the court that you start with when you file an appeal of FTB’s penalties and fees.
In this podcast, we discuss the blatant corruption at FTB and how the State of California has rigged the system to protect the corruption.
Links to the various things we discussed in the podcast:
Continue reading “I Was Featured on the “What We Can Do” Podcast with Haley Heathman”Yesterday, Audra Morgan from Eye of the Storm interviewed me for her podcast. We talked about the various channels that I have tried in my fight against government corruption and what has/has not succeeded so far. Check it out! if you want more information on what we discussed, links are below:
The explosive information is in the last paragraph. I am also working on uploading all of the Oaths that I have collected.
Requesting Oaths
Lately, I have been trying to combat government corruption by filing insurance claims against State Employees. But I haven’t given up on filing Federal Criminal Complaint (FCC); I’ve just put FCCs on the back burner for now.
David Myrland was right: The tax man does own the court system. California law says that on tax matters, jury trials are forbidden. Now I understand why that statute was enacted. “The system” can’t control a jury like they do judges. I am so tired of the games built into “the system” to ensure that the government is never held accountable for their crimes against constituents.
I’ve decided that the next FCC that I (eventually) file will be against all the other agencies who are protecting FTB’s schemes: FTB’s Board of Directors, who knowingly allow these schemes to continue; the three Office of Tax Appeals judges and Superior Court judge who covered up FTB’s unlawful activities in my court cases against FTB; and the people at the Bar Association who won’t prosecute the lawyers who committed crimes to protect FTB.
In preparation for the FCC filing, I needed to order the Oaths for everyone who will be charged in the FCC so that I can add Treason of Oath to the list of crimes. Here is a sample letter, which in which I requested both oaths and bonds.)
Per federal law, every elected or appointed government official must sign an Oath of Office. Per California law, all other government employees are required to take an Oath of Allegiance prior to beginning employment. The law also states that the State must issue an insurance policy or bond on every government employee. Under the California Public Records Request Act (CPRA), which is Gov. Code 7920.54(a), the agencies have to turn over copies of these documents upon request. CPRA is California’s version of FOIA.
Continue reading “How to Order Oaths and Report Oath Violations — Oath Violations May Have HUGE Impacts!”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.
Continue reading “The Playbook That Government Agencies Use To Get Away With Criminal Schemes”The next step is to file an appeal in the Office of Tax Appeals, which is an administrative (specialty) court that deals solely with tax issues.
If OTA denies your refund request, you can then file a trial del novo in Superior Court. In English, that means that the Superior Court judge will look at this as a new case altogether, not simply as an appeal of the lower court’s decision. (More info on the process in FAQs)
I had been warned by two different tax attorneys that OTA usually sides with FTB, so hiring an attorney would be a waste of money.
I thought I had made a strong case for why I should get my money back with my Brief and Oral Arguments, so I was disappointed, but not surprised, when I lost. The Opinion (aka verdict) for my case was so blatantly corrupt that it was shocking.
Continue reading “Why The OTA Opinion in My Case Was Blatantly Corrupt”Summary: I have been trying to get the Franchise Tax Board to end some blatantly illegal business practices. The basics are:
1. The FTB is illegally putting your estimated tax payments into a general slush fund instead of into your account. The money isn’t put into your account until you file your return for that year; basically, the State of CA is temporarily embezzling your money. If you file late, they harass you for payments that would not be owed/impose penalties that would not have been assessed had the money been applied to your account in accordance with the law.
Continue reading “Summary of FTB Crimes and Update on My Efforts To Stop Them”I lost my Office of Tax Appeal case. While I was disappointed, I was not surprised. Two different attorneys had told me that the OTA almost always sides with the FTB and that hiring an attorney would probably be a waste of money. That is why I originally went with the free attorney from the TAAP program. However, as soon as the TAAP program was moved from the Department of Fee and Tax Administration to the FTB, TAAP withdrew representation. What a surprise. So, I represented myself for the rest of the case.
The OTA verdict that was so blatantly corrupt that it was shocking. I just could not let the FTB/OTA get away with their criminal activities. The OTA is an administrative court, and Californians have the right to appeal administrative court rulings in Superior Court of CA. I went lawyer shopping and found that it would cost a minimum of $30,000 to get my $15,000 in penalties, fees and interest back. The lawyers I spoke with also told me that the FTB is retaliatory and will deliberately run up attorney costs with unnecessary extra legal work. And since I have pissed off the FTB in a big way, it would likely cost me as much as $100,000.
So I decided to act as my own attorney. Here is the brief. In my humble opinion, it is really good. It clearly lays out the FTB’s three racketeering schemes, as well as the unethical and underhanded tactics that the OTA uses to cover up FTB’s criminal activities. I am SO PROUD of myself!!!!! 🙂
I have forwarded this brief to the FBI, CA Auditors office, the FTB’s Board of Directors, Governor Newsom, GovOps, and everyone on the Senate and Assembly Tax Committees . Hopefully, it gets some traction.
Summary:
*Governor Brown, FTB Board of Directors (Betty Yee, State Controller; Keely Bosler, Director of Department of Finance, and Malia Cohen, BOE Chairperson, and the FTB Taxpayer Advocate Susan Maples are all aware of these unlawful collection practices and have not put an end to them.
*Governor Brown and State Controller Betty Yee have recently re-structured the Appeals process to make it more expensive and/or difficult to recover these unfairly applied penalties, fees and interest.
*It looks to me like the State Government is sanctioning these unlawful collection practices and rigging the system to ensure that taxpayers can’t get this unlawfully collected money back.
I. Restructuring the Appeal Process:
Up until January 2018, if a Taxpayer believed they were unfairly charged penalties, fees and interest by the Franchise Tax Board, they could file an appeal with the Board of Equalization.
Continue reading “Systemic Erosion of Our California Taxpayer Rights”Summary: I have caught the Franchise Tax Board, California’s Income Tax Collection Agency, utilizing an assortment of unlawful practices to scam extra tax money out of people (Section 1). I have been trying to put a stop to this government corruption (section 2). If you’d like to help me, I have suggestions at the bottom (section 3).
Both former Governor Brown and current Governor Newsom are actively protecting these schemes, as are State Controller Betty Yee and an assortment of other legislators.
Here is a video of me giving an 8-minute speech to legislators in December 2018, asking them to end some of these schemes. Since I was limited to only eight minutes, I couldn’t address all of the schemes that I’ve found. In the video, I flat out accused them of racketeering, along with other assorted violations. Even though they had more time to speak, the FTB only gave a 2-minute response. Susan Maples only responded to two of the eight items that I brought up, and Jozel Brunett gave a blanket statement that FTB is not doing anything unlawful.
The FTB’s written response to my speech is here: https://www.ftb.ca.gov/about-ftb/meetings/taxpayer-bill-of-rights/2018_Grab_Response.pdf. This response is full of legal improprieties – so much so that the Taxpayer Advocate refused to sign it when I pointed out that her signature was missing.
Continue reading “California’s Unlawful Schemes to Collect Extra Income Taxes From Taxpayers”