California Appeals Office Finds Taxpayers Didn’t Establish Reasonable Cause for Untimely Individual Income Tax Payment

The California Office of Tax Appeals (OTA) Feb. 24 found that Taxpayers didn’t establish reasonable cause for their late payment of individual income taxes. Taxpayers untimely paid the taxes with a late-payment penalty and interest. Taxpayers requested a refund of the penalty and interest, which the Franchise Tax Board (FTB) denied. Taxpayers argued that the FTB informed them that if they paid their taxes, the FTB would waive the penalty and interest, and they received bad advice from their tax preparer. The OTA noted: 1) there was no causal relationship between the FTB’s communication and Taxpayers’ failure to timely pay ...