CA Supreme Court Accusation Filed Against Franchise Tax Board Employee for Covering Up That FTB is Overcharging Taxpayers

I have caught California’s income tax agency, the Franchise Tax Board (FTB), running multiple schemes where they embezzle taxpayer’s money, then impose penalties which would not had been imposed had the money not been embezzled. The false imposition of fees is the crime of racketeering. I’ve also caught them overcharging interest. 

I have filed an Accusation in the California Supreme Court in which I detail how the schemes work, show the relevant legal codes that proves they are illegal, and then detail how FTB falsely makes these unlawful practices appear to be legitimate. I also call out the administrative court judges at the Office of Tax Appeals, as well as the California Bar Association, for their roles in covering up the criminal activities. 

Between the years 2008 and 2016, FTB “lost” 14 of the 19 payments that we had made. Instead of locating the “lost” monies, FTB kept demanding that we send them more money to cover the “lost” payments and also imposed penalties for their own “mistakes.” With each “lost” payment, I became more suspicious. In 2016, I figured out that FTB was indeed running unlawful schemes to bring in extra revenue to the State. Over each of the last four years, I have written several letters about the criminal conduct to Governors Brown and Newsom, State Controller Betty Yee, Department of Finance Directors Michael Cohen and Keely Bosler, and several other legislators. 

I even went to Sacramento in 2018 and 2019 to make speeches to Betty Yee and Keely Bosler about it. Note that in FTB’s rebuttal time, the Taxpayer Advocate never denied the allegations of racketeering. According to the law, failure to deny is considered an admission of guilt. 

Instead of halting the illegal practices, Controller Yee and Governor Brown instead changed the system to make it virtually impossible to get these illegally imposed penalties, interest and fees refunded.

This is a State-Level government corruption scandal that affects every Californian who makes estimated tax payments (including the self-employed, 1099 workers, some retirement incomes, and investment income), who may ever file their returns late, and who may ever be in collections (FTB is the collection agent for most CA and some federal government agencies, including the DMV) . Please share my CA Supreme Court Accusation with everyone you know who pays income taxes in California.

Please complain to your State Senator and Assemblyman, too, and ask them to implement my legislative ideas that will hold the taxation agencies more accountable. The legislative cycle has just begun, so now is the time to call your legislators and demand that they introduce my legislative ideas. If only one person calls, they will blow you off, but if 20 people call all asking for the same bills, the legislators may actually succumb to the pressure. The only way to change the system is for us to unite as taxpayers and demand accountability — so let’s DO IT!