Here is the February 2012 edition of the FTB’s “Tax News” newsletter.

Here is the January 2012 edition of the FTB’s “Tax News” newsletter.

Here is the December 2011 edition of the FTB’s “Tax News” newsletter.

Here is the November 2011 edition of the FTB’s “Tax News” newsletter.

Here is the October 2011 edition of the FTB’s “Tax News” newsletter.

Here is the September 2011 edition of the FTB’s “Tax News” newsletter.

Here is the August 2011 edition of the FTB’s “Tax News” newsletter.

Here is the June 2011 edition of the FTB’s “Tax News” newsletter.

Here is the June 2011 edition of the FTB’s “Tax News” newsletter.

Here is the May 2011 edition of the FTB’s “Tax News” newsletter.

Now you can also follow FTB’s Tax News on Twitter @CA_FTBTaxNews_E.

Here is the April 2011 edition of the FTB’s “Tax News” newsletter.

Of interest for Enterprise Zone taxpayers:

NASSCO Guidance
In our February issue of Tax News, I wrote about the Appeal of NASSCO Holdings, Inc 2010-SBE-001, November 17, 2010, which held that a corporate taxpayer may use Enterprise Zone credits and/or the Manufacturing Investment Credit (MIC) to reduce corporate alternative minimum tax (AMT). In my previous article, I said that we would be soon issuing additional guidance to help answer those frequent questions I received such as “Can I file an amended return?” and “How will this affect my credit carryover”. On March 18, 2011, we issued Notice 2011-2, addressing these questions and others.

The Notice clears up certain questions about limiting the application of the decision to corporate taxpayers only, and that it applies only to EZ and MIC credits, and not any other credits listed in subdivision (d)(1) of RTC section 23036. Additionally, the Notice states that the BOE opinion applies for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 1994. Since this decision is retroactive, you may have clients who would be entitled to refunds if they filed an amended return. It is important however to note, that this decision would also require the credit carryover to be recalculated to determine the correct amount of the carryover as allowed or allowable in previous years.

For full details and guidance, please see Notice 2011-02.

Here is the March 2011 edition of the FTB’s “Tax News” newsletter.

Here is the February 2011 edition of the FTB’s “Tax News” newsletter.

See page 13 for the “Ask the Advocate” section which deals with the recent BOE decision in NASSCO:

The Board of Equalization recently ruled in the Appeal of NASSCO Holdings, Inc 2010-SBE-001, November 17, 2010, that a corporate taxpayer may use Enterprise Zone credits and/or the Manufacturing Investment Credit (MIC) to reduce corporate alternative minimum tax (AMT). Since then, I have received many questions on how the FTB is going to implement this ruling. We will be revising Form 100 Schedule P in February 2011. In addition, the NASSCO decision applies only to corporate taxpayers, and does not apply to personal income taxpayers, due in part to differences in how the corporate and personal income tax statutes are
drafted. Consequently, personal income taxpayers may not claim the credits at issue in NASSCO in the manner that a corporation could.

The most frequent questions I have heard on this issue are “Can I file an amended return? and “How will this affect my credit carryover?? Unfortunately, we have yet to determine answers to these questions. Stay tuned however as we are working to get the answers to these questions and more as soon as possible. We will update you in a future Tax News article and possibly a Tax News Flash as information becomes available. In addition, you can go to ftb.ca.gov and search for nassco for additional
information.

Last month the State Board of Equalization issued a formal ruling in a case brought by NASSCO dealing with the question of whether certain tax credits could be used to offset alternative minimum tax.

The following article from BNA Tax Report by Laura Mahoney explains how the FTB will be addressing the change imposed by the BOE decision:

FTB Will Revise Filing Instructions For Taxpayers With EZ, MIC Credits, AMT

By Laura Mahoney

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—The California Franchise Tax Board will revise its 2010 filing instructions in February so that corporate taxpayers with enterprise zone hiring credits or manufacturers’ investment credits may apply those credits to offset alternative minimum tax, to comply with a recent ruling from the State Board of Equalization.

The revised Form 100 Schedule P instructions for the 2010 tax year stem from SBOE’s adoption in November 2010 of a formal opinion in the appeal of NASSCO Holdings Inc. (235 DTR H-1, 12/9/10) According to FTB, the NASSCO decision applies only to corporate income taxpayers and not personal income taxpayers, in part because of differences between corporate and personal income tax statutes. Corporate taxpayers will be able to claim the credits at issue in the NASSCO case.

“Only the corporate tax credits at issue in NASSCO will be administered in the manner contemplated by the NASSCO decision,” FTB said.

FTB has not said whether corporate taxpayers may file amended returns for open years in which they had both AMT and credits under the EZ or MIC programs. The February instructions may provide more details about what FTB will allow and how it will implement the decision, a spokeswoman for FTB told BNA Jan.4.

The updated instructions will be posted in February at http://www.ftb.ca.gov. Use the search term NASSCO for more information.

Reproduced with permission from Daily Tax Report, 3 DTR H-1 (Jan. 5, 2011). Copyright 2011 by The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. (800-372-1033)

Here is the December 2010 edition of the FTB’s “Tax News” newsletter.