Taxes: interest: penalties.

Existing law requires the State Board of Equalization to administer various taxes, surcharges, and fees, including the Sales and Use Tax Law, the Motor Vehicle Fuel Tax Law, the Use Fuel Tax Law, the Cigarette and Tobacco Products Tax Law, the Alcoholic Beverage Tax Law, the Energy Resources Surcharge Law, the Emergency Telephone Users Surcharge Law, the Hazardous Substances Tax Law, the Integrated Waste Management Fee Law, the Oil Spill Response, Prevention, and Administration Fees Law, the Underground Storage Tank Maintenance Fee Law, the Fee Collection Procedures Law, and the Diesel Fuel Tax Law. Existing law requires the payment of penalties and interest for a failure to timely pay taxes, from the date on which those amounts became due and payable to the state until the date of payment. This bill would prohibit, as of specified dates under the laws listed above, the assessment of interest and specified penalties against any person for failure to timely file a return or make payments of any taxes, surcharges, or fees imposed under those laws if the failure to timely file a return or make a payment is attributable to the failure of the State Board of Equalization's or its successor agency's Internet Web site, as provided, unless the person fails to file a return or pay the amount of tax within a reasonable time after the conclusion of the outage period. The bill would only permit interest or penalty relief if no significant aspect of the failure to file or pay is attributable to an act of, or a failure to act by, the person. The bill would make these provisions operative on specified dates subject to a specified contingency, and would require the board or its successor agency to post notice of the operation of these provisions on its Internet Web site.