Need Legal advice on a California income tax issue? The Franchise Tax Board says you may get your answer if you “Ask a Legal Expert”. However, not for everyone!
The purpose of the Franchise Tax Board’s Ask a Legal Expert program is to provide informal answers from the Legal staff to basic legal questions.
A basic legal tax question for Ask a Legal Expert is one where the answer requires reference to established authority, principles or policy about California statutory or administrative franchise and income tax law, as applied to a given set of facts. A question about a novel or controversial area of the law, or a matter that is part of a current regulatory or formal ruling project is not basic for Ask a Legal Expert purposes. An account question, collection issue question or a question that does not require legal analysis in the response, is not a legal question, for Ask a Legal Expert purposes.
While this may work for certain basic questions, in my experience as a California tax controversy specialist, I am zero out of three for getting my answer. Ok, it does say basic, but hey it's a free service, so I gave it a try! It took over two weeks to get a response each time, so allow time. I guess “one man’s basic is another man’s brilliance “. Smile
It is still a good tool for taxpayers! Check out this link: