Duplication fees for record requests April 2022 Tax News

FTB charges a duplication fee when you request copies of records

The Franchise Tax Board (FTB) charges a duplication fee when you request copies of records under the Information Practices Act (IPA) or Public Records Act (PRA), as permitted by the IPA and PRA. For PRA requests, we will provide copies of records that are not exempt from disclosure promptly upon advance payment, by check, of the estimated duplication costs.

Duplication Fees

We charge a duplication fee to photocopy or scan paper records that are not maintained by FTB in electronic format. You may specify your preference for paper records to be photocopied and mailed, or converted to electronic format, such as .pdf and emailed, subject to data file size limitations. We also charge a duplication fee if the record needs to be converted to a format other than the one in which it is stored. For example, we will charge a duplication fee if a record is stored as a Word document and you ask for the document to be provided in .pdf format.

Our charge is based on our direct cost of duplication. If the responsive records need to be stored on portable storage media for mailing due to the volume and/or file size of the records, duplication fees will also include the cost of the storage device (CD or USB drive). Direct cost of duplication does not include staff time to locate, retrieve, or redact the record.

Beginning January 1 of each year, FTB will provide a one-time waiver of the cost of the first 49 pages requested by an individual or company that are subject to a duplication fee for either an IPA or PRA response, and those pages will be provided without charge. After this threshold is met, and for the remainder of the year, we will charge duplication fees of .10 cents per page for all pages that are subject to a duplication fee.

Programming and Computer Services Costs

If producing a record requires construction of a record by data compilation, extraction, or programming, we charge the full cost of our necessary programming and computer services, to include IT personnel time (prorated salary and benefits), in addition to any direct cost of duplication.

Please review IPA or PRA at FTB’s website for more information.