25112
. (a) If a taxpayer electing to file under Section 25110 fails
to supply any information described in subdivision (b), the taxpayer
shall pay a penalty of one thousand dollars ($1,000) for each
taxable year with respect to which the failure occurs.
(b) A taxpayer electing to file pursuant to Section 25110 shall do
all of the following:
(1) Retain and make available to the Franchise Tax Board, upon
request, the documents and information, including any questionnaires
completed and submitted to the Internal Revenue Service or qualified
states, that are necessary to audit issues involving attribution of
income to the United States or foreign jurisdictions under Sections
482, 861, 863, 902, and 904, and Subpart F of Part III of Subchapter
N, or similar sections of the Internal Revenue Code.
(2) Identify, upon request, principal officers or employees who
have substantial knowledge of, and access to, documents and records
that discuss pricing policies, profit centers, cost centers, and the
methods of allocating income and expense among these centers. The
information shall include the employees' titles and addresses.
(3) Retain and make available, upon request, all documents and
correspondence ordinarily available to a corporation included in the
water's-edge election that are submitted to, or obtained from, the
Internal Revenue Service, foreign countries or their territories or
possessions, and competent authority pertaining to ruling requests,
rulings, settlement resolutions, and competing claims involving
jurisdictional assignment and sourcing of income that affect the
assignment of income to the United States. The documents shall
include all ruling requests and rulings on reorganizations involving
foreign incorporation of branches, all ruling requests and rulings on
changing a corporation's jurisdictional incorporation, and all
documents that are ordinarily available to a corporation included in
the water's-edge election that pertain to the determination of
foreign tax liability, including examination reports issued by
foreign taxing administrations. If the documents have been
translated, the translations shall be furnished.
(4) Retain and make available, upon request, information filed
with the Internal Revenue Service to comply with Sections 6038,
6038A, 6038B, 6038C, and 6041 of the Internal Revenue Code.
(5) Upon request, prepare and make available for each corporation
organized or created under the laws of the United States or a
political subdivision thereof, of which 50 percent or more of its
voting stock is directly or indirectly owned or controlled, the
information that would be included in the forms described in
paragraph (4) if those forms were required for United States
corporations.
(6) Retain and make available, upon request, all state tax returns
filed by each corporation included under subdivision (a) in each
state, including the District of Columbia.
(7) Comply with reasonable requests for information necessary to
determine or verify its net income, apportionment factors, or the
geographic source of that income pursuant to the Internal Revenue
Code.
(8) For purposes of this subdivision, information for any year
shall be retained for that period of time in which the taxpayer's
income or franchise tax liability to this state may be subject to
adjustment, including all periods in which additional income or
franchise taxes may be assessed or during which an appeal is pending
before the State Board of Equalization or a lawsuit is pending in the
courts of this state or the United States with respect to California
franchise or income tax.
(c) If the failure continues for more than 90 days after the date
on which the Franchise Tax Board mails notice of that failure to the
taxpayer, the taxpayer shall pay a penalty (in addition to the amount
required under subdivision (a)) of one thousand dollars ($1,000) for
each 30-day period (or fraction thereof) during which the failure
continues after the expiration of the 90-day period. The increase in
any penalty under this subdivision shall not exceed twenty-four
thousand dollars ($24,000).
(d) If the taxpayer fails to comply substantially with any formal
document request arising out of the examination of the tax treatment
of any item (hereafter in this section referred to as the "examined
item") before the 90th day after the date of the mailing of the
request, any court having jurisdiction of a civil proceeding in which
the tax treatment of the examined item is an issue may, upon motion
by the Franchise Tax Board, prohibit the introduction by the taxpayer
of documentation covered by that request.
(e) For purposes of this section, the time in which information is
to be furnished (and the beginning of the 90-day period after notice
by the Franchise Tax Board) shall be treated as beginning not
earlier than the last day on which reasonable cause existed for
failure to furnish the information.
(f) This section shall not apply with respect to any requested
documentation if the taxpayer establishes that the failure to provide
the documentation, as requested by the Franchise Tax Board, is due
to reasonable cause. For purposes of subdivision (d), the fact that a
foreign jurisdiction would impose a civil or criminal penalty on the
taxpayer (or any other person) for disclosing the requested
documentation is not reasonable cause unless, after in-camera review
of the documentation, the court finds otherwise.
(g) For purposes of this section, the term "formal document
request" means any request (made after the normal request procedures
have failed to produce the requested documentation) for the
production of documentation that is mailed by registered or certified
mail to the taxpayer at its last known address and that sets forth
all of the following:
(1) The time and place for the production of the documentation.
(2) A statement of the reason the documentation previously
produced (if any) is not sufficient.
(3) A description of the documentation being sought.
(4) The consequences to the taxpayer of the failure to produce the
documentation described in this section.
(h) Notwithstanding any other law or rule of law, any taxpayer to
whom a formal document request is mailed may begin a proceeding to
quash that request not later than the 90th day after the date the
request was mailed. In that proceeding, the Franchise Tax Board may
seek to compel compliance with the request.
(i) The superior courts of the State of California for the
Counties of Los Angeles, Sacramento, and San Diego, and for the City
and County of San Francisco shall have jurisdiction to hear any
proceeding brought under subdivision (h). An order denying the
petition shall be deemed a final order that may be appealed.
The running of the 90-day period referred to in subdivision (c)
shall be suspended during any period during which a proceeding
brought under subdivision (h) is pending.
(j) For purposes of this section, "documentation" means any
documentation which may be relevant or material to the tax treatment
of the examined item.
(k) The Franchise Tax Board, and any court having jurisdiction
over a proceeding under subdivision (g), may extend the 90-day period
referred to in subdivision (b).
(l) If any corporation takes any action as provided in subdivision
(h), the running of any period of limitations under Sections 19057
to 19067, inclusive (relating to the assessment and collection of
tax), or under Section 19704 (relating to criminal prosecutions) with
respect to that corporation shall be suspended for the period during
which the proceedings under subdivision (h) and appeals thereto are
pending.