TAX NEWS - February 2009

California tax: Innocent Spouse Program Changes

As of January 1, 2009, California's innocent spouse relief statute1 expired. The statute provides that we shall grant innocent spouse relief based solely on the prior determination to grant federal relief by IRS.2 Basically, the statute defined California's provisions to generally conform to the federal provisions.

Although we are no longer statutorily required to follow this statute, we will apply the same factors and considerations contained in the former subsection in considering requests for relief where the IRS has granted relief.

1 California Revenue and Taxation Code, Subsection 18533(i)
2 Internal Revenue Code section 6015