Friday, September 25, 2009

A surprising story about state government relations

I just had to share this story because it surprised and delighted me.

I try to find and follow all regulations and requirements. It takes some doing, considering the myriad requirements of city, county, state and federal government. After much research and sifting through conflicting information, I determined that we should have a sellers permit from the Ca Board of Equalization (BOE) because a very small amount of the income (a whopping $57) from our car show is actually taxable. So I went through the application process and got the durned thing right before the car show. Filing is quarterly, so I’ve been waiting for October to file. Meanwhile, I received two letters from the BOE notifying me that they require a $2,000 security deposit.

So I called them up, got to the right person (which was actually easier than I expected) and explained that we have $57 to pay taxes on, meaning that our total tax liability will be about 5 bucks. Therefore a $2,000 security deposit is way out of line and makes it unreasonable for me to comply with the regulations. You can imagine my surprise when the state of California understood my logic, agreed with me and waived the security deposit. They even invited me to call them up when I’m ready to file (about next week) and they will walk me through it the first time. These folks are downright reasonable and sociable!

Just had the share the good story,

Capt. David Bacon
Executive Director,
SOFTIN
dbacon@softininc.org
www.softininc.org

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