Under Cal. Rev. & Tax. Code Section 19306(a), a claim for refund typically must be filed within four years from the date the return was filed, four years from the last day prescribed for filing the return (determined without regard to any extension of time for filing the return) or one year from the date of the overpayment, whichever expires later. However, practitioners should be aware that under Cal. Rev. & Tax. Code Section 19308 a claim for refund may also be filed within the same period the Franchise Tax Board (FTB) may mail a notice of proposed deficiency assessment under the same circumstances if either (1) the taxpayer has extended the California statute of limitations for issuing a deficiency assessment of (2) the taxpayer has agreed with the Internal Revenue Service to extend the federal statute of limitations for issuing a deficiency assessment for any year.
(The remainder of this article can be accessed in the June 2006 edition of Lexis California Tax Practice Insights.)