[quote=CA renter]Sorry, flu, but you’re wrong about the system being set up to be inefficient and lethargic, and also about nobody wanting to save money and reduce spending. [/quote]
…Oh really????? Shall we revisit memory lane?
…We don’t need to look very far in the past…Look no further FTB’s most recent attempt to exclude Mello Roos from a schedule A deduction in 2011….
Remember that?
*California FTB goes ahead and declares mello-roos and other flat-rate taxes are NOT deductible on schedule A…
*It then spends millions of dollars to implement a system that’s purpose is suppose to monitor people’s reporting….all without checking first with the IRS on what it’s view on Mello Roos.
*It tells taxpayers all the way up to April 10th of that year that you cannot deduct Mello Roos on Schedule A…
*And then suddenly, on April 10 it becomes clear!!! An IRS memorandum from 2003 indicates that “Mello-Roos and other California assessments may be deductible as real property taxes, even though they are not imposed upon an “ad valorem” basis…
*Taxpayers who were “doing the right thing” and following the rules had 7 days to fix their returns…And for folks who already filed…They get to be burdened with a nice 540X refile…All at their personal time and expense. (Unless of course, you don’t mind forking extra money over to the FTB or in the situation in which you’re already bending over with AMT)….Ironically, filers who always just “assumed” it would be fine to write of Mello-Roos have nothing to do…
*Oh BTW, don’t forget about filing that 540X for previous years too…If you were unfortunate enough to listen to “advice” that mello-roos was not deductible…
So in summary, CA FTB wastes millions of dollars to try to collect more taxes…before it attempts to clarify what the IRS is doing….Someone failed to spend time to check the requirements and to interpret the IRS memo…… FROM 2003…Someone failed to inquire into the IRS to get clarity…The FTB decides to go ahead and spend money on implementing a system that is immediately not used….And worst, no one apparently got fired for this major screw up….(which if would have been the case at a normal a company)….
So while I have utmost respect for the IRS (despite I hate them too), the FTB takes the cake for me of the epitome of waste. Meanwhile, if you ever called the FTB for questions, you’ll most likely be immediately greeted by someone who is rude, unable(sorry, I meant incompetent) to help you, and tries to quickly transfer you to someone else, so it’s not their problem…Kinda like the people at the DMV…
But thanks for reminding me to send out a PSA to folks reminding then if they were unfortunate enough to have been honest for the past years and excluded mello-roos from schedule A, they can file an amendment for past years up to 4 years ago (for CA at least) to hopefully get some money back from the state…
