What’s new for HOH for the 2019 tax year? October 2019 Tax News

Historically, if a taxpayer did not qualify for the Head of Household (HOH) filing status, we issued a Notice of Proposed Assessment (NPA) to deny their HOH filing status. This generally occurred several months after the return was filed and if the taxpayers disagreed, they were required to go through a sometimes lengthy protest process in order to resolve the issue. For many of these taxpayers, they had received a refund when they filed their return only to have FTB come asking for some or all of that refund back months later due to an NPA. This frustrated many taxpayers as they wondered why we didn’t inform them they didn’t qualify for HOH when they filed their return and issued the refund.

We are always committed to improving a taxpayer’s experience, so we looked for ways to improve this process. Beginning with tax year 2019 returns processed in 2020, if a taxpayer does not qualify for HOH based on the information provided on their form 3532 or if they do not provide a form 3532, they will receive a Notice of Tax Return Change (NTRC) during return processing to deny their HOH filing status. If the taxpayer disagrees with that change, they will be able to resolve that issue by contacting us via:

• Phone
• Chat
• Correspondence

This resolution process will be much timelier than having to protest their NPA, and in most cases can be resolved in one contact. We believe this will provide a better experience for Head of Household taxpayers.

What’s next?

As the 2020 filing season approaches, we will be increasing communication to ensure taxpayers and tax practitioners understand this change, including additional:

• Tax News articles
• Posts on social media
• Information available on our website