Q: How do I order records from the California Franchise Tax Board?
A: While both types of records come from FTB’s Disclosure Department, how your request records depends on the type of information you are seeking: your own records vs California Public Records (California’s equivalent of FOIA).
Q: How do I request Oaths of Office/Oaths of Allegiance?
A: I have a bunch of oaths uploaded already, so check here first. This post has a list of agencies and how to order the information. From there, it should be easy to figure out how to procure the information from other agencies.
Q: What do I do if the government employee doesn’t have a fully executed oath?
You can try legal action to try to force resignations and/or you can send letters to federal regulators and hope the feds step in to help.
Q: I have caught a government agency doing illegal stuff. Who do I report it to?
A: I can only speak for California. For city and county level agencies, you are supposed to send an explanation letter with evidence to the county’s Civil Grand Jury. They will weigh the evidence and decide if it is worthy of an investigation. I have no idea if they get back to you. You should also contact your councilperson, the mayor and anyone else you think could possibly be of some help.
For a State Level Agency, you are supposed to send the same info to the FBI office closest to your home and also to the Investigations Department of the CA Auditor’s Office: Investigations, California State Auditor, P.O. Box 1019 Sacramento, CA 95812. Unfortunately, neither the FBI or Auditor’s office will tell you whether or not they have opened an investigation. If you have been harmed by this illegal stuff, you can also try filing a bond/insurance claim with ORIM. God luck with getting them to respond, though.
You should also contact the governor, board of directors, your state senator, your assemblyman, and anyone else that you think could possibly be of some help.
Q: Do you have any advice on how to jump in and fight government corruption?
A: The first thing to do is to pick an issue that you think you could have the most impact on. There are a lot of corruption issues that people see and think “Issue Y is really messed up, but X is way worse.” Yes, X may be worse, but if there are already a lot of people working on X, you will have far more impact by working on Y instead.
You will usually have the most impact if you choose a local issue, something within your own city/county/state. Local issues take less people pushing to make effective changes. And, the more you can get in the officials’ faces, the harder it is to blow you off.
The secret to success is to wrest control of the narrative away from the Agency you are fighting. He who controls the narrative wins the war. Since the Agency is corrupt, they are necessarily hiding that corruption via a false narrative that is delivered in a confident and authoritative tone. You have to find the lies and expose them in an equally confident and authoritative tone, putting them on the defensive (example 1 is my Appellant’s Second Response Brief where I call out the FTB lawyer made improper redactions, improper omissions and false statements in the OTA case; example 2 is my Superior Court Complaint).
They will try many maneuvers to wrest control of the narrative back, and put you on the defensive (examples: 1 is the letter from the Bar Association saying FTB’s lawyer did nothing wrong in the OTA case; example 2 is the FTB’s Answer where they made a blanket statement denying wrongdoing and citing random laws to try to sound legit; ).
You can’t let them. You have to stick confidently to your narrative of truth (example 1, I filed a CA Supreme Court Accusation in response to Bar’s claims that FTB’s lawyer did nothing wrong. Example 2 is the request that I filed with the judge to throw out their Answer because it was bogus).
As you confront the Agency’s false narratives, send regular updates to everyone up the food chain. I copied the governor, FTB’s board of directors, several other state legislators, the FBI and the CA Auditor’s office on many pieces of correspondence in which I called FTB out on their very strange accounting and their unethical business practices. I included a cover letter explaining exactly why these were suspicious/incriminating, and I made sure the cover letter also filled in any gaps in info that may not have been self-evident. The legislators need things spelled out for them clearly and concisely to understand. FTB continually tried to ignore me altogether, but they couldn’t because the Governor, Controller, and my Assemblyman made them respond to me.
Navigating government bureaucracy is MADDENING, and that is by design. They want you to get frustrated, give up and go away. It will take you a while to figure out exactly how the system works. Ask a lot of people in the assorted government offices involved in the corruption/cover up, because each person will give you slightly different info and you won’t know the full picture without talking to several people/departments/agencies. Everyone will forget a piece of info, or not think its relevant, or whatever. Ask for the legal basis for all of these policies and practices.
Another great place to get information from is the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) for national government agencies. Most states have their own version of FOIA, as well. California’s version is called the Public Records Act (PRA). When you make a request under one of these acts, they have to disclose all kinds of information that they normally try to hide. There is usually a person/department at each agency that handles the requests. You will have to find the right person/department and contact them direct. Also pay close attention to what they don’t disclose.
Once you understand how the system works, you can push for the appropriate changes. You have to be tenacious. They have a vested interest in keeping things status quo, and they will try all sorts of narrative-control tactics to get you to shut up and go away. Do not back down. Keep pushing back.
They will try to intimidate you. They will try to imply you are somehow breaking the law by calling out their crimes. They will imply that you will face nasty consequences for speaking out. You’ll likely be harassed, as well.
They will attempt to smear your credibility; painting you as a raving lunatic who doesn’t know what you are talking about. To give you one example, FTB sent a letter that they copied to State Controller Yee in which they claimed I had been assessed fees because I “never responded to notices.” The wording of their letter made me sound like a lazy dirt bag. In my OTA appeal, I documented that I responded to notices 71 times. This attempted smear actually bit FTB in the butt, because I was later able to publicly call them out on their “strange internal vocabulary” that is used to deceive regulators.
Another tactic to control the narrative is to misquote laws, or take laws out of context, or cherry-pick words to make it appear that the laws say something different than they actually do. Make sure you get online to a law library and read the text of each law they cite you in full. Regular online browser searches usually don’t pull up the sub-laws underneath the main law, and those sub-laws are often favorable for you. I know anyone can use the online San Diego law library: https://sandiegolawlibrary.org
One of the things I have learned is that the agencies will not volunteer any information, but they will usually not lie to you if you ask them a direct question. They will, however, use deceptive wording to deliberately mislead you. So ask a lot of questions, and re-ask them using slightly different wording. The different nuance in the phrasing may be the difference between what they have to disclose and not. Parse their answers carefully to make sure they actually answered the questions instead of giving you a pile of meaningless fluff. If they refuse to answer a question, then you know you have hit the right question, and will have to go up the food chain to get an answer.
In my case, I found out that I had a right to a copy of all the internal notes and records that FTB had on me. I asked several times about getting my hands on my information, and at first they refused to answer the questions. After a few complaint letters to the governor, board of directors, et all, FTB finally admitted I could have the internal notes and records. There were many, many smoking guns in those notes. I would have never been able to get so far in my fight without those notes… which is why they tried so hard to hide them from me.
And remember that I did say usually. In my case, I started complaining about FTB’s screwed up policies back in 2016 and 2017. Everyone at the FTB told me that only legislators could change the policies and procedures at the FTB. In late 2017, a tax lobbyist told me that there is something called The Annual Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights Meeting that I could attend to make these policy/procedure change requests directly to the FTB’s Board of Directors. I called out FTB’s lying to hide these meetings in my 2017 and 2018 Requests, and in 2019, they did finally update their website to disclose this right to the public. So I guess the point I am circling back to here is that you need to talk to lots of people to really understand the bureaucracy.
Remember that other government agencies and legislators will participate in the cover-up. They have a vested interest in keeping the system status quo, so they will do whatever they can to protect “the system.” Elected Governors Brown and Newsom, Elected Controllers Yee and Cohen, Appointed Department of Finance Directors Michael Cohen, Keely Bosner and Joe Stephenshaw, assorted elected Board of Equalization members, assorted appointed leadership at GovOps (that place has a lot of turnover), the Office of Tax Appeals, the CA Bar Association, the CA Attorney General’s office, and many other elected and appointed officials have been actively covering up the crimes that I have exposed. But I am undaunted. Every time I am rebuffed by a venue, I expose they are also exploitative criminals who need to be ousted when we finally re-org the system. I take each “go away” as a success in finding the corrupt who need to be weeded out.
I hope this is enough for you to get started! At this point, it is clear that the government is trying to manufacture one crises after another in order to shore up complete power. We all need to jump in and fight. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have much time, every bit helps. I encourage people to focus on areas of minor corruption. Minor crime is the base of the wall in which the higher crimes are built upon. Every bit of corruption needs to be eliminated, and it’ll probably be easier to see success in halting the minor crimes… and as you take down the minor criminals, chances are you’ll find connections with them to bigger crimes.
Q: Why didn’t you file a class action civil lawsuit against FTB?
I spent months looking for a lawyer for a class-action suit, to no avail. When I finally got to the “fuck it, I’ll do it myself” point and went to the law library, I found out that “Class Action” means that every person in the group was harmed in an identical way. So say there are 100 people in the class. If everyone sued individually, they would be basically 100 identical lawsuits. Since tax situations vary with each person, it is unlikely that each taxpayer was harmed in an identical way. As such, it is unlikely that a judge would ever certify a class in a lawsuit involving income taxes. But if a few of us sue individually and win, the State of California will have to change the unlawful practice because, thanks to litigation costs, they will be losing more money than they are making from the unlawful schemes. But as long as the racketeering schemes are net positive financially, the government will keep them going.
Q: What is the difference between the Class-Action Criminal Complaint that you plan to file vs a civil class-action suit?
A civil-class action suit would be request for monetary damages. It would be heard in a statutory court, either the Superior Court of California or Federal Court. It would require every person to be harmed in an identical way.
A Federal Class-Action Criminal Complaint is a different animal altogether. It involved common law, not statutory law. We will be providing proof to the Federal Government that the activities of FTB are systematic and unlawful, and demand that the Federal Government intervene to stop the unlawful activity. There is no request for monetary compensation from FTB. If one of us files a Complaint, it is easy to ignore. However, if we can get twenty people to join in, it will be too many for the Federal Government to ignore and the Feds will be forced to intervene.
Q: How does the legislative cycle work?
The legislative year starts at the beginning of September. From September to December, each legislator decides what they want to introduce for the next year. September is really the month you want to try to get into your legislator’s faces about the bills you would like to see introduced so that they have time to consider it, draft the bill, refine it, etc.
Bills are introduced in January. Between January and August, the bills are revised, voted on, revised some more, voted on again… The final vote is usually at the end of August, so if it didn’t pass by August, its done for the year. If it is a bill they feel strongly about, your legislator may choose to re-introduce it the next year.
Once bills are passed, they have to go to the governor to be signed into law. if he doesn’t like the bill he can simply veto it — and it’s dead. The last day for the governor to sign bills is usually the end of September. Here is the calendar.
Q: Why do you need a voting block and money to get the legislators to put a legislative bill on the table?
Each legislator is only allowed to present a few bills per year. Each legislator is on several committees, and they usually present bills related to the committees they are on. They also all have their “pet projects” — for example, I am in Toni Atkins district, who is a lesbian that pushes a lot of LGTBQ+ stuff. Since legislators are limited on how many battle fronts they are allowed to fight, they pick the bills that give them the most “bang for the buck.” They view my bill as only one vote — mine. They pick bills that will garner them tens of thousands of votes, as well as big campaign contributions to ensure ads to garner more votes. This is where lobbyists come into the picture. The lobbyists get legislators attention in the first place with offers of donations, endorsements of influential groups, etc. and convince the legislators why its best to choose their particular bill over all the others they are considering.
Q: Have you considered hiring a lobbyist to push your legislative ideas?
A: I have talked to a professional lobbyist. This is what he wrote:
“Carrying a sponsored bill through the legislative process is a time-consuming effort. It involves: finding an author to carry the bill, working with the Legislature’s attorney’s to draft the bill, preparing a letter of support and background sheets, visiting legislative office staff, encouraging other groups and associations to sign onto the bill, and testifying on the bill in committee. It’s a lot of work.
The base rate I charge to run legislation is $4000-$6000 a month, depending on how complex the bill is. I won’t know this answer until I talk to some additional people. In addition, the filing of lobbying paperwork adds another $400-500 a month to this cost. In total it will cost roughly $30,000 to shepherd a bill from introduction to the Governor’s Desk.
And keep in mind, most professional lobbyists in Sacramento would call me a fool to set a monthly rate that low. It is common for top-tier lobbyists to charge at least double that, and sometimes over $10,000 a month. You are getting a real good deal.”
I also talked to someone who is part of an ethnic group that was pushing to change the way curriculum in schools was taught regarding their ethnicity. Their group was sizable and raised a lot of money. They managed to get the bill passed in both the Senate and the Assembly. Then the governor vetoed it. And all the money and time spent was for naught. This guy was very jaded and discouraged me from trying to push my legislative ideas.
Q: FTB is charging me penalties, fees and interest that I don’t really owe. What do I do to stop it/get my money back?
You may be able to dispute the fees, penalties and interest through a process called Protest. If you qualify for the Protest process, call the FTB, get a name and a direct contact phone and fax # for the agent that you talked to, and send the agent your Protest with documentation via fax. Make sure you have a fax confirmation receipt in hand for every fax you send. I know faxing is antiquated, but fax the only method of delivery where the Protest will be processed before the deadline expires.
It may be a good idea to check out my legal documents linked below to see if there are any useful tax codes you can use to help persuade them. FTB wants you to pay those penalties even if you file a Protest and they’ll send you a refund if the Protest is approved (it won’t be).
If you do not qualify for a Protest, the first thing to do is to send in a request for refund. Basically, write a letter explaining why that penalty was improperly imposed and include copies of any documentation. Make sure you send it certified mail and print a receipt confirming delivery. You may want to check out my Rebuttal to FTB’s 2017 ATBOR Response, Superior Court Brief, Demurrer, Supreme Court Accusation (part 1, part 2) Motion to Compel Further Discovery of Documents, Oral Arguments for the Motion to Compel Further Discovery of Documents and Specially Prepared Interrogatories #2: Accounting Irregularities to see if there are any useful tax codes for your situation that you can cite in your request for refund.
When your claim for refund is denied (it will be), you can file an appeal with the Office of Tax Appeals. If you don’t get a letter in the mail from FTB within six months of them receiving your letter, that means FTB deemed your request a turn down and you can submit an appeal. I think you have 60 days to file your appeal from the date FTB turned you down (or if you never got a letter, eight months from the date FTB received the certified letter), but I am not certain about that. You’ll have to call OTA to double check.
Things have changed from when I first filed my appeal, but for me, I just had to send a letter stating I wanted to open an appeal and why. Include a copy of the refund request/documentation that you sent to FTB and their turn down letter (if they sent one or a copy of the certified mail receipt if they did not). Feel free to call OTA with questions. Unlike FTB, the people at OTA are helpful and nice.
Once you file your appeal, FTB will give you a lawyer to represent you for free through their TAAP program. Of course, the fact that an FTB employee is representing you against FTB in court is not suspicious at all….
If you don’t want their lawyer, you can hire your own, but it usually costs more than you are trying to get back. And since TAAP usually sides with FTB, it’s probably a waste of money, too. You can also choose to represent yourself. I started with a TAAP lawyer, who clearly gave me bad legal advice to ensure that I lost. But I learned enough from the TAAP attorney to understand how the system works and then from there, I represented myself.
The FTB will send a reply brief to your initial OTA Appeal Request. You then have 60 or 90 days (I don’t remember which) to send a reply brief. You can check out my Appellant’s Second Response Brief and my Superior Court Brief as guides on what to write in your brief — and the laws cited in the Superior Court Brief may be helpful for you. While my Supreme Court case utilizes a different format, it still may be worth your time to look at it because it contains a lot of laws that could help your case.
After you are done with Briefs, the next step is to go to a hearing and make oral arguments (you can skip this step if you want and ask for a verdict based on the brief alone). You can watch my OTA Oral Arguments, and you can watch any OTA case’s Oral Arguments online, for an idea of how the process works and what you are supposed to do.
Good luck!
Q: The IRS or FTB has filed a lien against my property. How do I get the lien removed?
In order for a lien to be filed, there must be a judgment issued by a judge. Neither IRS nor FTB bother to take you to court; they just improperly file liens and hope that you aren’t savvy enough to know that you can dispute the lien for not being filed in compliance with the law and have it removed. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to get your lien removed.
Once you have gotten confirmation that the lien was removed, you can file a complaint against IRS/FTB with the US Postal Inspection Services for mail fraud: https://www.uspis.gov/report.