California FTB Notice Survey on Tax Filing Experience (FTB 858 EN/SP, FTB 859 EN/SP)

The FTB 858 and FTB 859 are voluntary surveys the California Franchise Tax Board sends to randomly selected taxpayers. They ask about your filing experience, including how you prepared your return, whether you used a paid preparer, and your satisfaction with FTB services. The 858 is in English and the 859 is the Spanish-language version. Both ask identical questions.

These surveys are part of the FTB’s taxpayer experience improvement program under Government Code Section 15700. The FTB uses the responses to evaluate its customer service, website usability, and processing times. Your answers do not affect your tax account, trigger an audit, or change anything about your filed return. The survey data is aggregated and anonymized for internal reports.

Our clients at The Reed Corporation sometimes call us worried when they receive these. We reassure them that the FTB 858/859 is genuinely just a survey. There is no penalty for ignoring it and no benefit to completing it beyond helping the FTB improve its processes. If you want to respond, go ahead. If not, toss it.

No. The FTB 858 and 859 surveys are completely voluntary. There is no legal requirement to respond, no penalty for ignoring them, and no deadline that triggers consequences. The notice itself states that participation is optional. This is one of the few pieces of FTB mail you can safely discard without taking any action.

The survey typically arrives 2 to 4 months after you file your California return. The FTB selects recipients at random from processed returns. Receiving the survey does not indicate anything unusual about your return. It does not mean the FTB is reviewing your filing, questioning your deductions, or preparing an audit. The selection is statistical, not targeted.

We mention this to clients at The Reed Corporation because FTB mail tends to cause anxiety. Any envelope from the Franchise Tax Board makes people nervous. The 858/859 is the one FTB notice where we tell clients to relax completely. If you want to help improve the filing process for everyone, fill it out. Otherwise, recycle the paper.

The legitimate FTB 858 and 859 surveys come on official FTB letterhead with the Sacramento return address (PO Box 942857, Sacramento, CA 94257-0500). They do not ask for your Social Security number, bank account information, or credit card numbers. If a survey you received asks for financial details, it is not from the FTB.

Scammers occasionally send fake FTB correspondence to collect personal information. The real FTB 858 asks about your filing method, preparer type, and service satisfaction. It includes a prepaid return envelope and a survey ID number. It will never direct you to a website to enter personal data or ask you to call a number to verify your identity before completing the survey.

When clients at The Reed Corporation are unsure whether FTB mail is legitimate, we tell them to check the FTB’s website at ftb.ca.gov or call 800-852-5711 to confirm. We review questionable correspondence at no charge because catching a phishing attempt early protects both the client and their tax account.

You were randomly selected. The FTB pulls a statistical sample of filed returns each year to measure taxpayer satisfaction and identify service problems. Selection criteria include filing method (e-file vs. paper), return type (individual, business), and geographic region. The goal is a representative sample across all California filers.

The FTB has been conducting these surveys since the early 2000s. Results are published in the FTB’s annual report to the Legislature and influence decisions about technology upgrades, staffing levels, and customer service training. Your individual responses are never linked back to your tax account or shared with auditors. The survey program operates independently from the FTB’s compliance and collections divisions.

At The Reed Corporation, we actually find the aggregate survey results useful. They tell us which FTB processes are improving and which are still broken. When we know that 40% of surveyed taxpayers report confusion about a particular form, we can proactively explain that form to our clients before they file.

The FTB 858 typically asks 10 to 15 multiple-choice questions. Common topics include how you prepared your return (self-prepared, paid preparer, volunteer program), what software you used, whether you filed electronically or on paper, how easy the FTB website was to use, and whether you contacted the FTB for help during filing season.

Some versions include questions about specific FTB services like MyFTB account access, estimated tax payment tools, and the FTB’s live chat feature. There are also open-ended fields where you can describe problems you experienced. The survey does not ask about your income, deductions, tax liability, or any details from your actual return.

We have seen many of these surveys over the years at The Reed Corporation. They are genuinely benign. The FTB is trying to measure whether its website works, its phone lines are staffed adequately, and its forms make sense. Nothing about your participation or answers affects your tax account in any way.