California FTB Notice Notice of Proposed Assessment (FTB 6830)

FTB 6830 is the formal notice the California Franchise Tax Board sends when it believes you owe more California income tax than you reported. ‘Proposed assessment’ means the FTB has calculated an additional amount it thinks you owe — but it hasn’t become a final, legally enforceable debt yet. You have 60 days from the date printed on the notice to either pay the amount, reach a settlement, or file a written protest disputing the assessment.

Common triggers for an FTB 6830 include underreported income discovered through IRS data sharing (California receives federal return data automatically), unreported 1099 income flagged in the FTB’s income-matching program, or an audit of your return that found items the FTB disallowed. The notice will itemize what the FTB changed, the additional tax calculated, and any penalties and interest included in the proposed amount.

At The Reed Corporation, the first thing we do is verify whether the FTB’s proposed changes are correct. In a significant number of cases, the FTB’s proposed assessment is based on incomplete information — they didn’t have access to documentation that would reduce or eliminate the adjustment. A well-prepared protest with supporting documentation is often enough to get the assessment significantly reduced.

You have three main responses within the 60-day window: pay the amount if you agree with it, file a written protest if you disagree, or request additional time to gather information. Payment doesn’t require you to agree — you can pay under protest and file a Claim for Refund later under Revenue and Taxation Code Section 19306. If you neither pay nor protest within 60 days, the proposed assessment automatically becomes final and collection begins.

A formal protest goes to the FTB’s Protest Unit and must include your name, account number, the tax year(s) at issue, a clear statement of what items you’re disputing, the factual and legal basis for your dispute, and any supporting documentation. Vague protests without supporting evidence are routinely denied. The FTB has a Protest Resolution team that reviews them, and you’ll typically receive a decision within six to twelve months, though complex cases take longer.

If you need more time past the 60 days to prepare your protest, you can request an extension — the FTB typically grants 30-day extensions for reasonable requests made before the deadline. We always request extensions in writing and keep a copy of the acknowledgment, because the deadline is an absolute cutoff for your administrative rights.

If you don’t respond within 60 days, the proposed assessment becomes a final assessment by operation of law. At that point, you’ve lost your right to protest administratively, and the FTB can begin collection immediately — wage garnishments, bank levies, tax liens, and refund intercepts are all available. The only remaining option to dispute the amount is to pay first and then file a Claim for Refund within four years of the original payment under Revenue and Taxation Code Section 19306.

Paying first and filing a refund claim is a more expensive and time-consuming path than protesting the proposed assessment while you still have the chance. It also requires you to have the cash to pay upfront. And if you ignore the assessment entirely — neither paying nor filing a refund claim — you’ll face the compounding effect of continued penalties and interest on top of the original amount, plus whatever collection costs the FTB incurs.

We’ve helped clients contest FTB 6830 assessments years after they became final through the Claim for Refund process, but it’s always more expensive and less certain than protesting within the 60-day window. The protest process is much more flexible and preserves more of your options.

Yes — the FTB’s Protest Unit does settle cases during the protest process. If your documentation partially supports the FTB’s position but also shows some of the proposed adjustment is wrong, a negotiated reduction is common. Settlements at the protest stage typically don’t require payment upfront (unlike an Offer in Compromise) and can be based purely on the factual and legal merits of the dispute.

For larger amounts, the FTB also has a formal settlement program through its Legal Division. Cases involving substantial tax and disputed legal issues — not just factual disagreements — are eligible for settlement conferences where the FTB’s legal staff has discretion to compromise. Settlement authority increases as the case moves up: the Protest Unit can settle on facts, the Legal Division can settle on law, and the FTB Board can settle in unusual circumstances.

An Offer in Compromise (FTB Form 4905) is also an option if you’ve already accepted the assessment amount but genuinely can’t pay it — that’s different from a protest, which disputes whether the tax is owed at all. We walk clients through which path makes sense based on the strength of their factual position and their ability to pay.

California’s standard statute of limitations for issuing a Notice of Proposed Assessment is four years from the original return due date or the date the return was filed, whichever is later. So for a 2021 California return filed April 15, 2022, the FTB has until April 15, 2026 to send an FTB 6830. If you filed late, the four-year clock starts from the actual filing date. If you understated income by 25% or more, the statute extends to eight years.

There’s no statute of limitations if you never filed a return for that year — the FTB can assess tax at any time on a non-filed year under Revenue and Taxation Code Section 19057. Federal audit adjustments are another exception: if the IRS audits and changes your federal return, you’re required to report those changes to California within six months, and the FTB then has an additional two years from that notification to issue a proposed assessment based on the federal changes.

If you receive an FTB 6830 and the tax year looks old, we always verify whether the assessment is within the applicable limitations period before responding. An assessment issued outside the statute of limitations is invalid and can be contested. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it’s a complete defense.