Taxation: taxpayers' bill of rights: taxpayer representation.

The Katz-Harris Taxpayers' Bill of Rights Act ensures that the Franchise Tax Board conducts its operations of tax assessment and tax collection in a manner that ensures the privacy and property rights of California's taxpayers. The act establishes the position of Taxpayers' Rights Advocate and provides specified protections for taxpayers for purposes of, among other things, determining their correct tax liability. This bill would provide that if a taxpayer is represented by a federally authorized tax practitioner, as defined, and the taxpayer has authorized the federally authorized tax practitioner to represent the taxpayer pursuant to an executed power of attorney form, duly submitted to the appropriate California taxation authority, then an agent from a California taxing authority is prohibited from contacting the taxpayer without the federally authorized tax practitioner's knowledge and is required to send a copy of all correspondence sent to the taxpayer to the federally authorized tax practitioner. The bill would further require that a violation of this right to representation result in the removal of the taxpayer's case to a new and impartial agent who would be prohibited from considering any information that was improperly obtained by the agent who was replaced.