California Court of Appeal

In this tax case, petitioner filed an amended petition for writ of mandate alleging that it is the owner of a shopping center purchasing from five limited liability companies that owned the property previously as tenants in common. Petitioner assumed the liability for the unpaid property taxes, then requested that respondent tax collector cancel the penalties pursuant to Revenue and Taxation Code section 4985.2(a), which provides that a penalty resulting from failure to make a timely property tax payment may be canceled by the tax collector if the failure is "due to reasonable cause and circumstances beyond the taxpayer's control, and occurred notwithstanding the exercise of ordinary care in the absence of willful neglect." The trial court sustained respondent's demurrer without leave to amend. The judgment is affirmed, where: 1) section 4985.2 was not intended as a broad-ranging remedy for a particular taxpayer’s adverse financial situation or for a general economic recession, and so the trial court did not err in sustaining the demurrer on the ground that the facts alleged in the petition did not entitle petitioner to relief from section 4985.2(a) penalties; and 2) petitioner has not suggested in what way the petition can be amended to cure any defects.

Appellate Information

• Decided 02/02/2015
• Published 02/02/2015

Judges

• Franson

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel