California General Tax Amnesty 2005

Lynda Gledhill, San Francisco Chronicle Sacramento Bureau

"Assemblywoman Judy Chu, D-Monterey Park (Los Angeles County), has introduced a bill that would provide for a two-month amnesty in 2005 for both individual and corporate taxpayers.

Under her bill, taxpayers would have to pay the tax and interest owed but would not face fines or criminal prosecution for missed or underpayments from 2002 and earlier. Once the amnesty is over, the fines and interest rates for delinquent payments will increase, if the bill becomes law."

COMMENT:

The last general tax amnesty was in 1985 and brought in $154 million for the state. The Franchise Tax Board estimates that the currently proposed program could bring in $545 million.

California collected $1.3 billion though a tax amnesty (which expired April 15 of this year) that targeted individuals and corporations using illegal tax shelters. The FTB estimated that the program would collect only $90 million, and the unexpected collections have helped close the state's $15 billion budget shortfall.


- posted by Ronald @ 8:56 AM