What's new, BOE? Update of the goings-on the Board of Equalization.

• Author: Williams, Len
• Position: CA Tax - E-pay via mobile application, Qualified Purchaser Program and Centralized Revenue Opportunity System

Dave Flamer, CPA is the interface with the Board of Equalization for the Ca1CPA Committee on Taxation and recently reported the following developments:

Information Technology

There's an upcoming rollout of mobile apps--with e-pay being the first--which probably swill be online by the time this article appears.

Also by the time this article appears, there will be no more paper account registrations (i.e. paper firm BOE 400 SPA goes away). In most cases, an account number will be provided immediately. If a prior period is indicated, a tax return filing requirement will be established.

Qualified Purchaser Program

This program is explained--albeit briefly by the BOE at www.caltpa.org/QPP.

Here's an example of what the BOE is talking about: A CPA office grosses more than $100,000 per year and makes purchases from an out-of-state supplier, who doesn't collect California sales tax on the goods it sold. That CPA firm has a use tax liability and must file Form BOE-404-A, Qualified Purchaser Use Tax Registration, unless it already has a BOE use tax account or BOE sellers permit. The return is due annually on April 15 for the prior year.

The Qualified Purchaser Program produced $97 million in 2010-11.

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The program started with about 450,000 active accounts (registrations were mailed to virtually every business a few years ago), but is now down to about 172,000 accounts.

A bill was introduced in the California Assembly to increase the threshold to $500,000 of gross receipts, but it failed to gain any traction.

The June issue of Spidell's California Taxletter reported that the BOE is auditing qualified purchasers to ascertain whether or not the proper use tax has been paid.

Note: The BOE also gets reports of purchases that go through U.S. Customs, and uses that data to send bills for use tax to individuals.

Centralized Revenue Opportunity System

The object of this system is to improve processes and enhance the use of existing data. It should improve data sharing and capture up to $200 million in un-assessed and uncollected taxes annually.

Data sharing in this system will include other state and federal agencies, including the IRS.

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SB 1185 and the Underground Economy

The information sheet on this is subtitled "Refocusing Californians on the Real Deal."

Once again, there will be a Centralized Intelligence Partnership, among the BOE, Franchise Tax Board, Employment Development Department, Department of the...