CA Franchise

[ILLMAS]

If a foreign corporation had no income in the state of CA but is subject to the franchise tax, does the corporation pay the minimum franchise tax or is the franchise tax based on the federal income?

Thanks

MAS

[Max W]

All corps & LLC's pay a minimum of $800, whether there was income or not.  Corps are exempted in their first year of business.In addition C-corps are subject a tax of 8.84%, or the $800, which ever is greater.  The 8.84% is not waived.  S-corps are subject to 1.5%, or $800, whichever is greater.  

The state taxable income is never the same as the federal as there are state credits and expenses that are unique to CA.  State depreciation is usually different than the fed and no bonus dep. allowed.  

 

 

[ILLMAS]

12 hours ago, Max W said:

All corps & LLC's pay a minimum of $800, whether there was income or not.  Corps are exempted in their first year of business.In addition C-corps are subject a tax of 8.84%, or the $800, which ever is greater.  The 8.84% is not waived.  S-corps are subject to 1.5%, or $800, whichever is greater.  

The state taxable income is never the same as the federal as there are state credits and expenses that are unique to CA.  State depreciation is usually different than the fed and no bonus dep. allowed.  

 

 

Thanks, I did read the instructions and I called the department about the first year exemption about how to claim the exemption and they weren't very helpful, the agent I spoke basically said it's either the $800 or 8.84%, where can I make the election to waive the $800?

[Max W]

6 hours ago, ILLMAS said:

Thanks, I did read the instructions and I called the department about the first year exemption about how to claim the exemption and they weren't very helpful, the agent I spoke basically said it's either the $800 or 8.84%, where can I make the election to waive the $800?

There is no election. Just make sure you check "First Year".  The software should take care of the rest.

[SaraEA]

I have a CA client who recently got a letter from the department saying he didn't pay the estimates he claimed to pay and owed $228.  I had copies of his cancelled checks for $1200 each.  He called them and they said he must have used 2015 vouchers.  No, the vouchers clearly said 2016, as did the notations on the checks, "2016 CA Form...ES" on all four of them.  And if he used the wrong vouchers, why wasn't he off $1200?  Where did $228 come from?  Talk about them not being helpful: They told him to just pay it because it wasn't that much!