California Corner: Calling the Practitioner Hotline

The FTB continues to request (actually beg) practitioners to utilize the self-service options available on its website using “MyFTB Account.” Accessing information on the website frees up hotline agents to handle cases that cannot be resolved without live contact.

Tax Practitioner Hotline
(916) 845-7057

Tax practitioner hotline implements virtual hold technology. As a result of practitioner feedback, the Tax Practitioner Hotline successfully implemented Virtual Hold technology. Virtual Hold allows callers to save their place in the phone queue and receive a call back instead of waiting on hold for a potentially extended period of time.

In March 2023 alone, over 24,000 tax practitioners utilized this service. And even more impressive, during the first month since the implementation, 86% received successful callbacks within the promised time! FTB will continue to modify the settings of the new technology to help it achieve 100% of callbacks within the estimated time.

Implied consent. If your client received a notice that requires action or additional information, you may be able to get help prior to processing a power of attorney. Called “implied consent,” the FTB representative will try to establish that you have a relationship with the client. If you are calling about a notice, have a copy of it in hand to answer specific questions shown on the notice. If you are calling about processing of a return you prepared, the representative will ask you questions about your PTIN and other identifying information shown on the return.

Under implied consent, you will only be able to obtain information specific to the notice or the processing of the return. Additionally, implied consent cannot be used in the case of suspected ID theft.