Category Archives: California

If you’re a Californian who owns real estate, remember that your first property tax payment is due this Wednesday, December 10th. The payment can be made at your county’s tax collector office, by mail (US postmark deadline of Wednesday), or … Continue reading →

Do you remember Ishtar? It was one of Hollywood’s bigger flops. The Wall Street Journal is now comparing Governor Schwarzenegger’s budget policies to that failed film. Is the Journal correct? Absolutely. Governor Schwarzenegger is proposing raising the sales tax (which … Continue reading →

If you are a victim of the recent fires in Southern California, both the IRS and the Franchise Tax Board have given you an extension on tax payments. Both agencies said that impacted taxpayers who were required to make payments, … Continue reading →

California’s continuing budget crisis may be buried towards the back of newspapers but if you’re a Californian you should start paying attention. It looks pretty clear to me that some taxes are going to go up eventually. Negotiators are debating … Continue reading →

The Franchise Tax Board announced today that disaster relief is available to impacted taxpayers. Taxpayers who are amending their returns should write “Southern California Wildfires 2008” in red ink on the top of their return so that it is expedited. … Continue reading →

California’s Legislative Analyst is projecting that the budget deficit, currently pegged at about $11 billion, might grow to $28 billion. What does the Legislative Analyst, Mac Taylor, want to do to cure the problem? A 5% income tax increase. I … Continue reading →

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed increasing California’s base sales tax from 7.25% to 8.75% to help close an $11 billion budget shortfall. If the measure passes the state legislature, Orange County’s sales tax would be 9.25%. The measure is billed as … Continue reading →

While the most hotly debated proposition on the California ballot was Proposition 8 (banning of gay marriage—it passed 52% to 48%) that was not the proposition with the biggest fiscal impact. There were billions of dollars of bond measures on … Continue reading →

Unfortunately, it’s likely to be well past midnight before we know the results of the statewide propositions and the local ballot measures. I value my sleep, so I’ll be reporting on these on Wednesday.