BEFORE THE CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF EQUALIZATION 450 N Street, Room 121 Sacramento, California REPORTER'S TRANSCRIPT NOVEMBER 17, 2009 CUSTOMER SERVICES AND ADMINISTRATIVE EFFICIENCY COMMITTEE Reported by: Beverly D. Toms No. CSR 1662 1 1 2 P R E S E N T 3 4 For the Committee: Biill Leonard Chair 5 Betty T. Yee 6 Member 7 Jerome E. Horton Member 8 Michelle Steel 9 Member 10 Marcy Jo Mandel Appearing for John 11 Chiang, State Controller (per Government Code 12 Section 7.9) 13 Diane Olson Chief, Board Proceedings 14 Division 15 Board of Equalization Staff: Anita Gore 16 Deputy Director External Affairs 17 18 Kari Hammond Manager, Outreach Services 19 20 ---oOo--- 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 Sacramento, California 7 November 17, 2009 8 ---oOO--- 9 MS. YEE: Let's reconvene the Board of 10 Equalization meeting. 11 Ms. Olson, what's our next item? 12 MS. OLSON: Our next item is Customer Services 13 and Efficiency Committee. Mr. Leonard is the Chair of 14 this committee. 15 Mr. Leonard. 16 MR. LEONARD: Good afternoon. Thank you, Madam 17 Chair. Thank you, Clerk. 18 We have a report for you, a brief update on the 19 outreach and some of the things that you can share with 20 your constituents, and I wanted to present that to you. 21 Ms. Gore. 22 MS. GORE: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Members. 23 I'm Anita Gore, Deputy Director of External Affairs 24 Department. And here with me is Kari Hammond, the 25 manager of the Outreach Services Section. 26 We're here to update you on the progress we're 27 making toward creating virtual seminars and business 28 faires available through the BOE web site. 3 1 We are currently on target to create a total 2 seminar package by January 2010. 3 Today I have two new products to present to 4 you. The first is a small view of the Taxpayer Rights 5 Advocate video presentation. 6 (Video: Hello. My name is Todd Gilman. I'm 7 the Taxpayers Rights Advocate with the State 8 Board of Equalization.) 9 MR. LEONARD: It's on the screen behind you. 10 (Publication 70, Understanding your Rights 11 as a California Taxpayer" summarizes those 12 rights. The California Tax Advocate brochure 13 is a resource for the Advocate's office of the 14 Board of Equalization. 15 Taxpayers contact the Advocate's office 16 for a number of reasons. However, our primary 17 purpose is to help you when communication 18 breaks down. 19 As a taxpayer it is extremely important 20 for you to open all your mail you receive. 21 The State Board of Equalization is 22 required to hold two public Taxpayer Bill of 23 Rights hearings each year. The Advocate page 24 has a lot of information about the Advocate's 25 office and other publications and resources 26 that you will find helpful. 27 In closing, I hope you find this 28 information useful and valuable. 4 1 If you'd like to contact the Advocate's 2 office, please contact us at Toll Free 888 324 3 2798.) 4 MR. LEONARD: At 9:30 this morning it was an 5 hour long video. We've been editing it down ever since. 6 MS. GORE: In its totality it's a little more 7 than five minutes, I believe. 8 MR. LEONARD: Five minutes. 9 MS. GORE: And the second item we're premiering 10 today is the Sales and Use Tax nonprofit powerpoint 11 presentation with audio. 12 (Welcome to the Board of Equalization's 13 powerpoint presentation for nonprofit and 14 faith-based organizations. Tangible personal 15 property is any personal property which may be 16 seen, weighed. The organizations shown here 17 are generally considered to be the consumers 18 rather than the retailers of the items they 19 sell. 20 Frequently certain activities are perceived 21 as non-taxable when indeed they may be taxable. 22 If your nonprofit organization is having a 23 chicken dinner for $150 a plate, you should 24 indicate the actual sales price of the dinner, 25 itself, on the ticket and in your records. 26 The Board offers many services to help you 27 navigate through the laws and regulations. 28 Finally, we would like to thank you for all 5 1 the important work you do in our community and 2 in our State.) 3 MS. GORE: And that concludes my presentation 4 for today. So I would be happy to answer any questions 5 you might have. 6 MR. LEONARD: Members? 7 MS. STEEL: I have a comment to make -- 8 MR. LEONARD: Ms. Steel. 9 MS. YEE: Other comment. 10 MS. STEEL: I want to say thank you for Kari. 11 Last Tuesday actually we had the Small Business Faire 12 and -- in Riverside with all the tax agencies and 13 County -- Riverside County Assessor's office, and we had 14 over 250 people were there. They were asking around -- 15 especially Riverside that they are losing a lot of 16 houses so they were very happy that tax agencies were 17 there. 18 And that afternoon we did the Vietnamese 19 seminar. It's very small restaurant owner seminar and 20 it was really interesting that totally different 21 questions came out from a Vietnamese community that -- 22 in Vietnamese language, and then other taxpayers they 23 were asking something like if I just don't pay Sales Tax 24 then I close down the store, after five years I 25 disappear, then what you going to do about it? 26 The question is totally never asked before but 27 it was interesting that they -- their concerns are so 28 different from different communities. 6 1 And thank you very much for doing a great job. 2 MR. LEONARD: They do good work. 3 Ms. Yee. 4 MS. YEE: Just thanking the staff. Love to see 5 more of the same. 6 MS. GORE: Thank you. 7 MS. YEE: Yeah. I think the numbers of 8 taxpayers and members of the general public we'll be 9 able to reach will just be just so much greater with 10 these added features. 11 MR. LEONARD: I agree having this on-line -- 12 these two presentations I think are a great step in the 13 right direction and I'm looking forward to more. 14 Without further comment, the meeting is 15 adjourned. 16 Thank you both very much. 17 MS. YEE: Thank you. 18 ---oOo--- 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 7 1 . 2 REPORTER'S CERTIFICATE 3 4 State of California ) 5 ) ss 6 County of Sacramento ) 7 8 I, BEVERLY D. TOMS, Hearing Reporter for the 9 California State Board of Equalization certify that on 10 November 17, 2009 I recorded verbatim, in shorthand, to 11 the best of my ability, the proceedings in the 12 above-entitled hearing; that I transcribed the shorthand 13 writing into typewriting; and that the preceding 7 pages 14 constitute a complete and accurate transcription of the 15 shorthand writing. 16 17 Dated: December 17, 2009. 18 19 20 ____________________________ 21 BEVERLY D. TOMS 22 Hearing Reporter 23 24 25 26 27 28 8