Hacker News Reader

Comment by fwungy | Hacker News Reader

Did they figure out how to tax California residents who leave the state? They were trying.

> tax California residents who leave the state

Unless Sacramento has high conviction of the law surviving court challenges, they shouldn’t reättempt it. Its mere discussion is a powerful forcing function for decampment.

Another diaeresis user! Truly the most underrated of all punctuation.

They already have ways: https://www.modernfp.com/blog/leaving-ca

They may yet expand them further, we'll see.

No, but the Franchise Tax Board is aggressive about going into former state residents' bank accounts & cleaning them out without notice for an "estimated income tax"...even if the former resident filed in another state for the year that they moved out onward. So have your paperwork in order or get a CPA to get your money back if the FTB does a surprise withdrawal from your bank account.

That seems surprising - can you elaborate?

The FTB will attempt to contact you by mail at your last known address about not filing for the year you moved out onward. If the FTB is unable to contact you, the funds in the bank account will be seized for the "estimated income tax"...probably a few years later. Perhaps you can give the FTB a notice that you moved out of the state before this happens?

It would be nice if the FTB contacts your bank about contacting you before the seizure, but that's not what they do. It can be particularly inconvenient if they seize all of the funds (and they will if that's what is estimated to be owed), as it may be difficult to hire a CPA in that event. Hopefully the paperwork is in order or a CPA is already hired.

I left CA in 2016 and experienced none of this. I assume there is some specific trigger, or taxpayer ghosting, needed to trigger this?

I don't know what the trigger is. I know of 2 people this happened to including me. My CPA mentioned that CA was "very aggressive" & he had dealt with this before. I had already filed in a different state far away from CA for multiple years after moving out. The seizure happened on a Friday late December & my CPA got all of my funds back by the next Tuesday. Did you notify the FTB that you moved out of CA?

Edit

My friend recently had his funds seized from when he moved out for the 2016 year. He got 1/2 back but his paperwork is not in order & got cleaned out. Currently does not have enough to hire a CPA to get the rest.

Btw, I had already done several of the steps listed in https://www.modernfp.com/blog/leaving-ca

I will never move back to CA. Another word of warning from a CHP officer. If you happen to drive in CA as a former resident, make sure you have your out of state license on you. If you forget your wallet, you could be cited for driving with an expired license.

So basically, you need to make sure you close this particular bank account before you leave the state?

The FTB will track you by your SSN. If you open a new bank account, the funds in that new bank account will be seized.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com