Oil Spill Prevention and Administration Fee & Oil Spill Response Fee Guide

Register online with us for Oil Spill Prevention and Administration (OSPA) fee and Oil Spill Response (OSR) fee accounts applicable to your type of business. Online registration is the convenient way to register and is available 24 hours a day seven days a week.

Beginning November 1, 2021, renewable fuel production facility operators and renewable fuel receiving facility operators will be able to register online. Existing OSPA feepayers may add new site(s) for each facility type (as defined in Revenue and Taxation Code section 46024) to their account when filing their OSPA fee return starting in November 2021.

The facility types listed below must register for the OSPA and/or OSR fee programs as shown below:

If you have multiple facility operations under the same legal entity, you only need one account under the OSPA Fee Program and the OSR Program, as applicable. If you are a marine terminal operator or a refinery operator, you will need both an OSPA fee account and an OSR fee account.

You may need additional accounts, permits, or licenses issued by us, including, but not limited to the following:

• Seller's permit
• Motor vehicle fuel supplier license
• Diesel fuel supplier license
• Terminal operator license
• Underground storage tank account

Visit our Tax Rates – Special Taxes and Fees page to view current and historical rates for the OSPA and OSR fees.

The OSPA fee rate is set by statute (Government Code section 8670.40). Beginning July 1, 2023, and every July thereafter, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife will adjust the OSPA fee rate based on changes in the California Consumer Price Index.

File your return online – Our online filing service is easy, fast, and free.

Oil Spill Prevention and Administration Fee

You must use our Online Services to file your CDTFA-501-OA, Oil Spill Prevention and Administration Fee Return and pay the fee. The return and fee are due on the 25th day of the calendar month following the reporting period. For example, a return and payment for the reporting period of April 2022 would be due on or before May 25, 2022. You are required to file a return even if you did not have any reportable activity during the reporting period.

Filing a late return and/or late payment may result in a penalty and/or interest. See the Penalty and Interest section below.

Oil Spill Response Fee

Feepayers registered under the OSR program are required to file CDTFA-501-IR, Oil Spill Response Fee Annual Information Return annually. You may use our Online Services to file the return, which covers a one-year calendar period and is due on or before the following January 25th. The OSR Fund reached the fund maximum in January 1991 and the OSR fee is not currently being collected.

When the fee is active, a monthly return and fee are due on the 25^th day of the calendar month following the reporting period. At that time, you are required to file a return even if you did not have any reportable activity during the reporting period. Filing a late return may result in a late penalty fee. See Penalty and Interest topic in this section.

Payment

You may file and pay your oil spill fees in one transaction when you file online. Visit our website to make a payment and learn about our various payment options.

If your average monthly fee payment is $20,000 or more, you are required to pay by Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). We will notify you in writing if you are required to pay your fees electronically.

Payments must be submitted by the due date to be considered timely. For an EFT payment to be timely, it must be initiated on or before the filing due date and funds must settle into our bank account on or before the banking day following the due date.

The penalty for filing a late return and/or late fee payment is ten percent of the fee amount due for the period. Interest also applies to late fee payments.

You may log into your account to submit an online request for an extension to file a return or relief from penalty (including interest due to a disaster).

Log in with your username and password to update your account information. You may update your email address, mailing address, location address, telephone number, and close your account. If you prefer, you may use form CDTFA-345-SP, Notice of Business Change Special Taxes and Fees Accounts, and mail it to the address provided in the form. It is important to notify us so we can update our records to ensure you receive information, email reminders to file online, and other updates timely.

Records required to be retained must be kept for at least four years from the time the tax is due unless we authorize in writing their destruction sooner.

If you have overpaid the fee directly to us, you may file your refund claim using our online services. Log in using your username and password and select the account for which you want to request a refund. Select the More link under the I Want To section. Then select the Submit a Claim for Refund link and follow the prompts.

You may also file a refund claim by completing and mailing form, CDTFA-101, Claim for Refund or Credit, or file an amended return stating the specific reason(s) for the overpayment. Additional details about filing a claim for refund can be found in publication 117, Filing a Claim for Refund.

You may mail your claim to:

California Department of Tax and Fee Administration
Appeals and Data Analysis Branch (MC: 33)
P.O. Box 942879
Sacramento, CA 94279-0033

Additional refund details can be found on our Special Taxes and Fees Refund page.

Claims for refund based on the grounds that the crude oil, petroleum products, or renewable fuel did not pass over, across, under, or through waters of the state will be forwarded to the Department of Fish and Wildlife (Office of Oil Spill Prevention and Response).

Barrel

42 gallons of crude oil, petroleum products, or renewable fuel.

Crude Oil

Petroleum in an unrefined or natural state, including condensate and natural gasoline, and substances that enhance, cut, thin, or reduce viscosity.

Petroleum products

Any liquid hydrocarbon at atmospheric temperature and pressure that is the product of the fractionation, distillation, or other refining or processing of crude oil and that is used as, useable as, or may be refined as, a fuel or fuel blendstock, including, but not limited to, gasoline, diesel fuel, aviation fuel, bunker fuel, and renewable fuels containing more than five percent petroleum products.

As of July 22, 2021, the definition of petroleum products is changed to remove reference to alcohol fuels that contain petroleum products and includes renewable fuels containing more than five percent petroleum products.

Renewable fuel

Any liquid produced from nonpetroleum renewable resources that is used or useable as a fuel, or such liquid that may be blended with other types of fuels. Renewable fuel includes fuels that may contain up to five percent (5%) petroleum products. An example of renewable fuel is denatured ethanol.

Marine Terminal

Any facility used for transferring crude oil, petroleum products, or renewable fuel to or from tankers or barges. A marine terminal includes all piping not integrally connected to a tank facility as defined in the Health and Safety Code § 25270.2, subdivision (n).

Refinery

A facility that refines crude oil, including condensate and natural gasoline, into petroleum products, lubricating oils, coke, or asphalt and that may blend nonpetroleum products with refined products either in the refinery or as the petroleum products are shipped from the refinery or from adjacent storage facilities.

Renewable Fuel Production Facility

A facility that produces renewable fuel for blending or shipment.

Renewable Fuel Receiving Facility

A facility that is the first point of receipt in California for renewable fuel that originated from outside California, that receives renewable fuel delivered by railroad car, tank truck, pipeline, or vessel. A renewable fuel receiving facility may include, but is not limited to, a refinery, a marine terminal, a railroad tank car to tank truck transfer facility, or other storage and distribution facility.

State waters or waters of the state

Any surface water, including saline waters, marine waters, and freshwaters, within the boundaries of the state but does not include groundwater.

A marine terminal operator, a refinery operator, or a renewable fuel production facility operator receiving petroleum products derived from crude oil refined in California or receiving renewable fuel produced in California, may presume the fee has been previously collected.

For the OSPA fee, the number of barrels you received with the fee already paid can be deducted on your return CDTFA-501-OA, Oil Spill Prevention and Administration Fee Return.

Documentation to support fees that have already been paid must be retained in your records for four years for all crude oil barrels claimed as fee-paid.

There are no deductions available under the OSR fee.

Bonded jet fuel received at a marine terminal and then used in international flights is not subject to the OSPA fee or the OSR fee. To qualify for this exclusion, the fuel must enter California under bond pursuant to federal law and regulation and remain under bond in segregated storage until it is shipped by pipeline to an airport facility where it is used exclusively on international flights.

If you are a registered marine terminal operator, refinery operator, renewable fuel production facility operator, and/or a renewable fuel receiving facility operator, you are required to collect the oil spill fee from the owners of the crude oil, petroleum products, or renewable fuel on applicable transactions.

On any transaction or activity that would result in an oil spill fee liability, you must separately state the fee amount you collect on the invoice provided to the owner of the crude oil, petroleum products, or renewable fuel. You must also separately state the fee amount you collect on the shipping documents provided to another marine terminal operator, refinery operator, renewable fuel production facility operator, or renewable fuel receiving facility operator on any transaction or activity that would result in an oil spill fee liability.

The law does not prohibit a feepayer from including the fee expense in the costs for services provided or in the products it sells; similar to how sellers commonly include expenses for processing, transportation, and marketing in their products' cost. However, the fee must not be separately stated as a charge for reimbursement on a transaction or activity that does not result in a fee liability. A separately stated fee reimbursement charge or fee charge on a transaction or activity that does not result in a fee liability is considered excess fee reimbursement.

Excess fee reimbursement is defined as any amount charged by a feepayer on an activity or transaction that does not result in an oil spill fee liability or is more than the fee due and represented as an oil spill fee reimbursement. Excess fee reimbursement must be paid to us, unless refunded by the feepayer to their customer.

The law does not provide for a credit for the export of crude oil, petroleum products, or renewable fuel on which the fee was paid. The fee is imposed on the receipt of the crude oil, petroleum products, or renewable fuel, or the shipment of renewable fuel from a renewable fuel production facility, not upon the subsequent sale or shipment.

Fuel grade ethanol denatured with five percent (5%) or less petroleum products and biodiesel blends (B95 and lower) are included in the definition of renewable fuel effective July 22, 2021 provided in Revenue and Taxation Code (RTC) section 46024. Renewable fuel blends that contain more than five percent (5%) petroleum products are considered petroleum products (RTC 46021). Fuel grade ethanol was considered a petroleum product according to Regulation 2240, Petroleum Products, until July 22, 2021, and therefore, subject to the OSPA fee until July 22, 2021.

Although the definition of renewable fuel became effective July 22, 2021, renewable fuel received from July 22, 2021, through December 31, 2021 is not subject to the OSPA fee. Renewable fuel is subject to the OSPA fee starting January 1, 2022.

Marine terminal operators or refinery operators should not charge or collect the OSPA fee on renewable fuel (as defined above) for this period. If you did collect the OSPA fee from your customer on renewable fuel for this period and paid it to us, you may file a claim for refund or amend your OSPA fee return online after you refund the excess fee back to your customer.