On July 25 a bill sponsored by the Board of Equalization (BOE) to streamline and simplify refunds on tax liabilities is now signed by the governor and will become law January 1, 2017. AB 1856, authored by Assemblyman Matt Dababneh helps taxpayers making installment payments by only requiring they file one claim for refund, rather than one for each installment payment they have made on a single liability.

“Running a business is challenging enough without having to keep track of multiple layers of paperwork,” said BOE and Legislative Committee Chairwoman Fiona Ma. “It is my goal and that of all our members to simplify and streamline our taxpayers’ dealings with government agencies so they can spend more time on achieving success in their business ventures.”

In several cases, BOE taxpayers have been barred by the statute of limitations from recovering all of the installment payments they made to the BOE, even though their tax debt was cancelled or reduced to an amount less than the total payments received—because they made payments after the original claim had been filed, but did not file additional claims to cover the later payments. The new law will allow taxpayers making installment payments to file a single claim for refund before the entire liability is paid in full.