California Attempts To Repeat Tax Amnesty Success

by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington

01 June 2004

Following the unexpected success of the previous Californian tax amnesty, the state Assembly last Thursday approved a bill that would put in place another amnesty using the familiar “carrot and stick” approach to persuade people to clear their tax debts.

Welcoming the move, State Controller Steve Westly commented last week: “Our first tax amnesty, put in place by Assembly member Frommer and Senators Cedillo and Burton, brought $1.3 billion in the door. Now it’s time for the next step, a broader tax amnesty to collect taxes already on the books.”

According to Democrat Assembly member Judy Chu who was the driving force behind the bill, Californians owe the state a total of $6.5 billion in uncollected taxes and she is hoping that the new amnesty will reduce this by $710 million.

However, the proposals have drawn fire from Republicans including Assembly member John Campbell, who accused Chu’s bill of focusing on punishment rather than incentive.

Whilst recognising tax amnesties “have proven to be a good thing," Campbell was quoted in the media as saying the new proposals "contains a stick that whacks all taxpayers."

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