FRANCHISE TAX BOARD:
New FTB Chief Counsel Geoff Way Says Agency Will Change its 'Adversarial View' of Taxpayers

The legal division of the Franchise Tax Board has not had a "culture of customer service," but the agency's new Chief Counsel Geoff Way said he hopes to change this during the next 12 months.

In a December 20 interview at the Cal-Tax office, Mr. Way said he plans to break down internal barriers among staff, focus on prioritizing workloads, continue the FTB's "transparency" policy by providing taxpayers with additional information online, and also increase the department's regulatory workload.

"I want people to feel that they were treated fairly and with respect," he said. "I don't think that we have always done that – and that bothers me."

Mr. Way, who became chief counsel in the fall, has been with the FTB for 15 years – a span that includes both boom and bust years for the state.

One of Mr. Way's goals is for the FTB's lawyers to have an open dialogue with the public on taxes.

"I think it's arrogant for a tax department to think they know what's going on in the business community," he said. "We don't have a clue."

He continued, "We can tell you what's going on in the state tax return process – we know a lot about that, but we do not know how businesses are responding."

Mr. Way hopes to promote a dialogue through Cal-Tax and other taxpayer advocates. By "talking with people like Cal-Tax," he said, the FTB will be able to better understand how the business community views the state's tax policies.

"Historically, we've had an adversarial view of Cal-Tax," he said. "But they're the ones thinking about tax issues from a business perspective each day. I think that it improves the dialogue if you can sit down with people that are steeped in the taxpayers' experience and have a discussion about tax issues and identify some cross-points and maybe come up with a solution."

(Cal-Tax intern Robert Gutierrez, a student at Westmont College, interviewed Mr. Way and contributed this story.)

Cal-TaxReports January 14, 2008

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