Laws, Regulations and Annotations
Search
Business Taxes Law Guide—Revision 2024
Emergency Telephone Users Surcharge Act
Revenue and Taxation Code
Division 2. Other Taxes
Part 20. Emergency Telephone Users Surcharge Act
Chapter 7. Administration.
Article 5. The California Taxpayers' Bill of Rights*
Section 41169
41169. Reimbursement to taxpayer. (a) Every taxpayer is entitled to be reimbursed for any reasonable fees and expenses related to a hearing before the department if all of the following conditions are met:
(1) The taxpayer files a claim for the fee and expenses with the department within one year of the date the decision of the department becomes final.
(2) The department, in its sole discretion, finds that the action taken by the department staff was unreasonable.
(3) The department decides that the taxpayer be awarded a specific amount of fees and expenses related to the hearing, in an amount determined by the department in its sole discretion.
(b) To determine whether the department staff has been unreasonable, the department shall consider whether the department staff has established that its position was substantially justified.
(c) The amount of reimbursed fees and expenses shall be limited to the following:
(1) Fees and expenses incurred after the date of the notice of determination, jeopardy determination, or a claim for refund.
(2) If the department finds that the staff was unreasonable with respect to certain issues but reasonable with respect to other issues, the amount of reimbursed fees and expenses shall be limited to those that relate to the issues where the staff was unreasonable.
(d) Any proposed award by the department pursuant to subdivision (a) shall be available as a public record for at least 10 days prior to the effective date of the award.
(e) The amendments to this section by the act adding this subdivision shall be operative for claims filed on or after January 1, 2000.
History—Stats. 1995, Ch. 555, in effect January 1, 1996, substituted "board" for "State Board of Control" after "expenses with the" in paragraph (1) of, substituted "decides" for "makes a recommendation to the State Board of Control" after "The board" in paragraph (3) of, and deleted paragraph (4) which read: "The State Board of Control concurs with the recommendation and orders the board to provide reimbursement of fees and expenses to the taxpayer." from, subdivision (a); and added subdivision (d). Stats. 1999, Ch. 929 (AB 1638), in effect January 1, 2000, added "within one year of the date the decision of the board becomes final" after "with the board" in paragraph (1) of, and substituted "in an amount determined by the board in its sole discretion" for "which shall be determined by the board" after "to the hearing," in paragraph (3) of, subdivision (a), substituted "board staff has … was substantially justified" for "taxpayer has established that the position of the board staff was not substantially justified" after "consider whether the" in subdivision (b), and added subdivision (e). Stats. 2021, Ch. 432 (SB 824), in effect January 1, 2022, substituted "department" for "board" throughout; substituted "the notice of determination, jeopardy determination, or a claim" for "filing petitions for redetermination and claims" after "the date of" in paragraph (c)(1).
* Added by Stats. 1992, Ch. 438, in effect January 1, 1993.