Having been personally on the receiving end of the incompetence of both California FTB and the US IRS, I can assure you that there is no scheme to commit fraud.

Having been personally on the receiving end of the incompetence of both California FTB and the US IRS, I can assure you that there is no scheme to commit fraud. It is plain, unadulterated incompetence. Coupled with extremely complicated tax code, underfunding and poor technology, they can’t help but make mistakes. In fact they are so stupid that once I filed an amendment and they processed it wrong and ended up owing more money than I expected. This was filed by a tax attorney on my behalf. The attorney was surprised at this deviation and advised me it would be cheaper to pay them off instead of dealing with their BS. It made no financial sense to fight their mistake. US tax code is horrible. In another situation the FTB received my payment and failed to apply the payment to a tax year. They didn’t send a refund but promptly sent a threatening letter. Upon pointing it out they reversed the interest penalties and charges.