SACRAMENTO – Senator Ted Gaines (R-El Dorado) announced that Governor Brown has signed his Senate Bill 1246, a bill that will streamline and modernize the process for expediting property tax refunds to California taxpayers.
“I’m thankful the Governor recognized this as an important taxpayer protection bill,” said Senator Gaines. “SB 1246 is simple and fair, two elements of good governance that are too often missing in California. With this bill, we will now be able to resolve any overpayment issues efficiently and quickly, and get taxpayers back what is rightfully theirs.”
Under previous law, an outdated and archaic “refund claim form” was required to be mailed to a member of the public who is owed money due to an overpayment of taxes, penalties, assessments, interest or other costs associated with local taxes. The claim form had to be signed and returned by the taxpayer before the county could issue a refund.
SB 1246 will speed up the process to allow the county to simply pay the taxpayer what is owed when an overpayment or refund is discovered without the time-consuming paperwork required under current law.
“Government makes it easy to pay them money and hard to get any back. This bill levels the scales and puts the needs of taxpayers first,” said Senator Gaines.
