California CDTFA Responsible-Person Assessment: Building the Appeal Record

Review the primary official source.

A business tax balance does not automatically become every officer’s personal liability. Under Revenue and Taxation Code section 6829, the record must address the person’s control, supervision, responsibility, or duty to act; the periods when that role existed; whether the business collected or included the tax at issue; and whether any failure to pay was intentional, conscious, and voluntary.

Read the proposed assessment closely

Identify the entity, tax type, periods, assessment basis, asserted responsible person, deadline, and appeal instructions. For a determination governed by Revenue and Taxation Code section 6561, a petition for redetermination must be filed within 30 days after service of the notice; otherwise the determination becomes final when that period expires. Preserve the notice, envelope, service evidence, filing confirmation, and the current instructions that accompanied the notice.

Separate the entity’s underlying liability from the individual-liability elements; both may require records.

Document actual authority and control

Collect bylaws, operating agreements, bank signature cards, payroll authority, job duties, communications, tax filings, payment approvals, and evidence of who controlled funds during each period.

Titles are relevant but not conclusive. The record should show what the person could and could not do.

Analyze knowledge and willfulness

Build a transaction-level chronology of tax collected, returns, available funds, creditor payments, warnings, professional advice, and steps taken after learning of the delinquency.

Do not rely on a generic statement that another owner handled taxes. Identify dates, documents, and the practical allocation of responsibility.

Preserve the administrative path

Use CDTFA’s current appeal instructions, file a focused submission, and retain confirmation. Organize exhibits with an index and connect each to a disputed element.

Coordinate related entity, bankruptcy, payroll, or income-tax issues without assuming one agency’s decision resolves another’s. The firm’s California tax-services overview explains the broader notice-and-record framework.