Call Centers Experiencing High-Call VolumesOctober 2021 Tax News

Contact Centers and Self-Service Options

To keep our tax practitioners informed and in position to best assist their clients, Franchise Tax Board (FTB) strives to be transparent and mitigate potential issues as quickly as possible. The Golden State Stimulus (GSS) I and II packages have created an exceedingly high number of additional calls for our contact centers which has caused delays in our ability to answer or respond to your calls, chats, and correspondence as quickly as we would like.

To help alleviate these high-call volumes, remind your clients:

• We update our website regularly to include the most pertinent information available, and offer self-service options where it is likely they can receive the same information an agent would provide.
• Payments can be made with Web Pay.
• Access MyFTB to view your, or your client’s account(s), and even upload documents which may be all that FTB staff is waiting on to move forward with your tax needs.
• We provide the most recent GSS information available, and an Estimator tool to determine how much stimulus payment your client may receive, and links to review how payments will be sent, and view when payments will be sent to customers.

The customer service dashboard can be viewed to determine the best time to call. This will provide you a better understanding of how long you may have to wait as well as a better day to call. Lastly, Mondays, and the day after a holiday, are always very busy for our contact centers, so please plan accordingly.

Be assured, FTB will continue to do our very best to answer your contacts as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Thank you.