Screw the IRS – it is the state Dept of Revenue that you need to fear! In this week’s episode, Eric Green is joined by Leighanne Lafrenz Nickle, CPA, to discuss state enforcement horror stories and how things can quickly go off the rails when the state decides it needs more money. They review personal horror stories and explain why you need to be aggressive in challenging any proposed changes or balances due from the state.
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Screw The IRS – Fear The State!
Why Taxpayers With Issues Should Be More Concerned About The State Dept. Of Revenue Than The IRS
I am being joined by one of our trainers, Leighanne Lafrenz Nickle, who is a CPA in California, whom I’ve known for ten years, at least. What prompted this conversation was that we were on Zoom talking about some of the crazy stuff that comes up. Everyone’s afraid of the IRS. No one thinks about the state. I’ve had similar experiences with Connecticut. You have with California. You fear the state. I’m going to be very blunt. Everyone, I apologize. The state is nuts.
In Connecticut, we don’t have much guidance. What guidance we do have is that you’ll have the Department of Revenue people tell you, “We don’t have to follow that. That’s a recommendation.” They will come up with and contort themselves into all kinds of positions to try to figure out a way to get the client to owe more money. I thought it’d be interesting if we could let the audience know about some of this. First of all, you’re not alone. I’ve heard this. Florida, Illinois, and New York are all the same. Most states do not have the formal processes that the IRS has or the taxpayer protection. It was your first case.
A Shocking First Tax Case & The Aggressive Tactics Of State Tax Agencies
My very first experience with California insanity was in 2017. It was my first case. A lot of you have heard about this case. I’ve turned it into a webinar that Eric and I have presented. It’s a great case. I’ve used it for a lot of case studies. I was super green, so I had no idea what I was doing. I walked into my client’s office or restaurant. It was a restaurant client. If you ever hear the words, “By the way,” and your client hands you a piece of paper, run or be prepared.
They were getting an audit from the IRS. It started originally prior to me even knowing them in 2016 with the California Department of Tax and Fee, which previously was the Board of Equalization. When cannabis became legal in California, the BOE with other taxes and the CDTFA was formed in order to do some of these cannabis taxes, sales tax, and stuff like that. That’s the history with that. It was the BOE when I was dealing with them, and then they transformed into CDTFA, which is the California Department of Tax and Fee. I don’t know why they can’t make it shorter, but here we are.
What happened was my client had a restaurant and they were scheduled for a sales tax audit. I don’t know the dynamics of a lot of it because I wasn’t there at the time. A sales tax auditor from the BOE at that time walked into their restaurant and said, “We’re here to audit your sales tax, and we want to download all your information off your server.” My client let them. That’s not a good thing to do.
This client lets them download everything. The auditor didn’t even ask for anything out and they walked out. The next thing they know, they get this bill for $200,000 of unreported sales along with penalties, interest, and the whole ball of wax. A total of 65,000 is what they paid, and they paid it. Their previous tax person at that time told them, “You better pay it. They’re right.”
Since they were a Schedule C filer, the California department decided to share a courtesy to share information with the IRS, so then it transformed into an IRS audit. That’s where I came into play. To backtrack to the sales tax, when I received the work papers from the audit, some of the things were redacted, but most of it I was able to back into.
My formal training was that I came from private accounting, and I went to public accounting. I did the reverse. I was a controller, accounting manager, and all that wonderful stuff way back, so my accounting skills and my audit skills are fairly strong. When I received this, I did my own audit of the client and found $2,000 of unreported income. What’s interesting about this is the work paper showed $200,000 on the nose from the sales tax audit.
That is unusual.
The probability of that is I would probably bet on the lotto. I came up with $2,000, not even joking. I came back to the auditor and said, “We’ll take the $2,000.” That’s the IRS thing. I wanted to go back and put in a claim for refund once I won the IRS audit and then subsequently the Franchise Tax Board. Schedule C affected their income tax in California and their IRS tax liability.
I had to reopen. It was already expired. I had to go back and reopen the audit because they were also being audited by the Franchise Tax Board, but my client ignored it. I had to go back and reopen. I sent a letter. I was green. I didn’t even know what the processes were. I was shooting in the dark here. They called me and I told them what was going on. They said, “Let us know. We’ll agree with whatever the IRS says.” They didn’t even want to audit anything. I’ve come to find out that the Franchise Tax Board doesn’t do a lot of standalone audits. Meaning, they like to piggyback off the IRS.
The Franchise Tax Board doesn't do a lot of standalone audits; they like to piggyback on the IRS. Share on XSame with the Connecticut Department of Revenue.
They’re too lazy or something in order to go in and pick an audit. They are auditing more of the businesses versus individuals as far as that goes. I don’t think they’re going after a lot of individuals. I’m going to tell you where they are going after a lot of individuals. The Franchise Tax Board likes to run fast and loose with SFRs. For those of you who don’t know what that is, it is Substitute For Return. In IRS, it’s three years. California is four. They can go back four. They like to do Substitute For Returns. I learned about this.
I have an older daughter. She works for me and does the majority of my tax work. At the time, in 2018, my business was 1 year old. My daughter started working for me. She had graduated from college. Prior to when she worked for me, she did hair. Meaning, she was a hairstylist and cosmetologist. She had a license with the Bureau of Consumer Affairs, the same licensing that issues my CPA license. It’s one umbrella, and then they have all the different divisions. Mine’s the Bureau of Consumer Affairs and the Board of Accountancy. Hers is the Board of Barbering and Cosmetology, and so on and so forth.
What I’ve come to find out is that in 2018, my daughter got a letter. It said that she did not file a tax return because it shows that she has a license in barbering and cosmetology. They wanted to know where her Schedule C, W-2, or something is showing that she was working in that industry. If she didn’t send one in, they were going to make one for her. They like to match everybody’s licenses up. The majority of the actual audits that I’m getting are mainly these. This is where they’re nailing the individuals. If you have a license in California, you don’t file a return. They’re going to file it for you.
California will file a tax return for you if you have a license but don't file. Share on XCalifornia’s Use of Substitute for Returns & Questionable Tax Collection Methods
It is because of limited resources and everything. For those reading, the lesson from all of this is that they all need money. Every state is broke. Every state needs money. Two, they’re being told, “Go find money.” The other thing is, it’s easier to audit a business. Nobody cares about a business. Individuals have a tendency to scream and call their congresspeople or their state reps. The other thing is the sales tax. They do a sales tax audit, the same in Connecticut. If your client agrees, they’re like, “We’ll turn it into an income tax. You’ve agreed. You’ve admitted it.” That’s why with the income tax, they don’t have to do an audit. They’ve already done it.
It’s already there. It’s already done.
They’re like, “Here’s your bill.” If you’re a business owner reading this, you have to fight these things. If you are the CPA or EA reading this, your client’s got to fight this. I’ve had this where clients are like, “This is paying the sales tax.” I say, “Alright.” When they turn it into an income tax, they’re like, “Wait a minute.” The State of Connecticut, with the information sharing with the IRS, takes the position. They will make it available upon request. They will not automatically send it to the IRS. California will. Some states will. That means you have sales tax. That will become an income tax, and that’s going to become a federal tax. It’s $65,000 here and there. Before you know it, it’s $200,000 owed.
They’ve got the $65,000 from the sales tax. When they do the 568 LLC return in California, then they’ll get the income tax from the unreported income from that. They’re probably looking at collecting $100,000 from that, from an auditor walking into somebody’s restaurant and downloading the server.
A Wild Case: Fighting A $2 Million Tax Bill Over Admissions Tax
It’s very simple. Everything’s fully taxable. You wouldn’t have any non-taxable sales. We’ve had that. I have one here. Connecticut did away with this, but we used to have an admissions tax. Similar to sales taxes, you pay for admission to access. Think of a carnival. You pay it there and then you get access to whatever’s there within the fenced area or something.
It’s during COVID. It’s 2020. The auditor sends a bill. This is a large retail store. In the middle of the store, they have a climbing wall. There’s a little merry-go-round thing, and they have food and whatever. I’m speaking to the client. They sent them a bill for over $2 million. What they said is, “You didn’t pay your admissions tax.”
This is what Connecticut does. They went all the way back to the beginning of time when the store opened, even though they weren’t even in the store, the company that runs the little climbing wall concession thing, and mailed them a check. They took all their gross receipts subject to admissions tax and sent them, except that there were no admissions. They don’t charge anything.
It was during COVID. That was shut down.
What happens is I filed the appeal saying, “The auditor never physically went. They couldn’t have. There are no admissions being charged. The admissions tax is the charge for admission. It’s open to the public.” I mentioned, “We have videoed this with our phones if you want to see it. There are no admissions. Therefore, there’s no admissions tax due. This has to be expunged.” You get a letter back from the auditors. When they receive this, they give you an informal conference. Usually, these are a waste of time.
I’ve got a couple of informals.
This is one where I’m almost dying. I’ll tell you another story. This person’s name is Michael. He’s now head of audit, but he used to be an appeals officer years ago. My law partner at the time, who’s now deceased, Bob Percy, went in and audited a supermarket. It’s like a neighborhood market. They got fruit, vegetables, meat, and whatever. Food is not subject to sales tax in Connecticut. Candy, soda, and prepared meals. They pick up on the hams. The hams are smoked. They charge sales tax on this.
Bob tells me, “I’m going to show you how we’re going to handle this.” He goes to the store and buys a ham. He’s feeling them all. I was like, “What are you doing?” He was like, “I want the one with all the juice.” He hands me a phone and we take pictures of the market way back when I finally had a phone that would take a picture.
We had the appeals. Back then, you went in person. We go in person. I give it to the appeals officer. He takes the ham out and opens it up, and the juice and everything run all over the conference room table. He said, “The pictures will show there are no tables and no chairs. You would have to eat this in your car. Are you suggesting that somebody would go and eat in their car?” They admitted they wouldn’t. Bob takes the ham and leaves the mess all over the table.
I told you that story to tell you this one. With the admissions tax, I have this with Michael. I said, “Michael, your auditor never went. He couldn’t have. There are no admissions. We don’t know what you’re talking about. Honestly, it would’ve been better off making something else up.” He tells me, “Eric, I reviewed the audit. I’m good with the audit.” I said, “Michael, don’t make me come down there with a ham,” and he started laughing. I said, “We’re going to go to appeals. This is ridiculous.”
I like him, don’t get me wrong, but this is the crap you get from the state. He said, “It’s COVID. We’re all working remotely. I have a lot of flexibility to settle this.” I said, “Michael, I’ll talk to the client. We’re going to spend $20,000 going to appeals and litigating this. You’re going to win. I would advise them to settle for $20,000. I’ll see if they’re willing to settle, but I can tell you right now that it’s going to be closer to my $20,000 number and not near your $2 million number. Are you looking for $2 million or are you looking for something closer to my $20,000?” He said, “The latter.” That tells you all you need to know. This is a shakedown.
That’s exactly what the sales tax is.
They know the audit is crap.
They let you pay for it and walk and go away.
What they’re going to do is they’re going to get whatever they can get. I called the client and the client said, “That’s fine.” Two days later, Connecticut repealed the admissions tax. Timing is everything in life. I called them and said, “Michael spoke to the client. They told me to make an offer of $20,000 to settle this.” Remember, it’s under $2.1 million. I don’t hear anything for about 2 or 3 weeks, and then in the mail, we get the closing agreement for $20,000.
You’ve got to fight these things. It’s like the federal IRS offer specialist. You would think that an offer specialist, by their title, would specialize in offers and compromise. How many of you have seen where they don’t seem to know what the heck they’re doing? First of all, if you’re a business owner, make sure you hire representation that does that because it makes all the difference. If you’re a CPA or EA who doesn’t do this one, find someone who does. I got to tell you something. Come into Tax Rep and get trained. You can do a lot of good for people and make a good living doing it, helping people sort through this stuff.
If you're a business owner, make sure you hire representation that specializes in your compromise. Share on XWe’ll teach you how to do it. I’ve done enough work.
I’ve got more crazy stories. I’m going to let you go next. I got another one.
Crazy Tax Stories: Gentleman’s Club Audits & Industry Shenanigans
This was a very interesting one. Eric’s got the ham story. I had a client who had a gentleman’s club. They’re also subject to paying sales tax. I remember the auditor was a man. I’m a woman. It was my client who had this in the state of California. At the gentleman’s club, the dancers are either topless and they can have alcohol or fully nude and no alcohol. That’s the rules.
They’re selling drinks and they charge a flat fee of $6. This client was getting an audit for their sales tax because they pay sales tax on that. We were arguing over the markup and all this stuff. What the California Department of Tax and Fee likes to do is they like to do an average. You could send them an actual and it would tie out beautifully. I’m a CPA. If everything ties out, my life is complete.
I tied it out to what it’s supposed to be, the rate and the whole thing, in a spreadsheet for days. They will virtually ignore it and take an average. I’m like, “How in the world can you justify this?” They’re trying to create more revenue. That’s what they were doing. They were saying that because they were mainly targeting the drinks sold during the day shift period, which is a lot slower foot traffic-wise, I would think, not that I’m a frequent flyer of these clubs, during the evening or even the weekends.
I wound up having to go and sit in the club, almost starting to count drinks and stuff. Video, unfortunately, was not an option for me because of privacy issues. When I came back and I told the auditor that, he didn’t believe me. I told him, “We’re going to go.” He and I went together. We sat there together and started counting. I told him, “If you get a lap down, I’m out.” I wound up winning that because I brought him in. It’s the same thing with the ham. It’s the same kind of story. There are a lot of colleagues I know who won’t touch that kind of industry. I’m like, “It’s another sales tax thing to me. The whole thing doesn’t bother me.” It was fine. That one went fine.
I told you I have a CPA firm that hired me. I had mentioned this. They’re auditing the number of returns versus their gross revenue. I had told you this, too, that the state of California is telling them, “You are not charging enough. How many times have we all said that?” That’s a new one. That one I’m still working on at the moment. That’s a very interesting one because I’m thinking to myself, “How do they justify this?”
On the one hand, a part of me thinks, “That’s an easy one. Get the listing of every return file and directly trace it to every payment.” The only thing they could imagine would be someone coming in and giving them cash, and they pocketed the cash.
I get cash, very little, but I do get it. We still mark it paid and put cash, so it still is recorded as revenue.
The Predatory Nature Of Some State Tax Audits & How To Push Back
You would, but that would be the only argument for the auditor in that report. We had one. They went into the bar. This report shows $100,000 sales tax owed. It’s a small place. I’m going through the report. I was sitting there at the bar with the owner and I said, “The beer glasses,” because I’m looking. I don’t know if you’ve seen the official Guinness pint glass. I have some. A friend of mine who’s from Ireland sent them to me. They are sixteen ounces.
I said, “Sixteen ounces?” He said, “Yeah.” I said, “An auditor is basing it on eight. That’s a problem.” The other thing is he’s basing it on the amount of alcohol, one ounce per. The drink that he took as a test was Sex on the Beach. If you ask a bartender, it has four different types of booze in it. I take pictures of the bar, the glasses, and all this stuff. I was saying, “We don’t owe anything.”
I pointed this out to the appeals officer whom I was friendly with. He’s now retired. The first thing out of his mouth was, “Sex on the Beach,” of all the drinks he was going to pick. I said, “The guy doesn’t drink, obviously, because anyone who drinks would know. That’s not a good one to pick.” He said, “I saw the glasses. They do look like sixteen ounces.” I’m like, “They’re the pint.” We ended up settling him for $9,000 or something like that, some rounding of whatever. When you’re dealing with the state, and you mentioned this, they want an average. I find that they will go to industry standards when they don’t like your actual numbers. I know this sounds disturbing in a way.
It’s predatory.
It’s a shakedown. Legalized extortion is what it is. I have a company. The company is in the Northern part of the state. They are a manufacturer. They are the only manufacturing company in Connecticut that is growing. They built a brand new factory and moved in. They’re only occupying about 40% of it because the idea is to keep growing and continue to use more.
The auditor comes in and everything ties out. He tells them, “This is pretty simple and straightforward.” A week later, he calls back and tells the owner, “My manager wasn’t happy with the audit report. We’re going to be making some adjustments. We’ll send it to you.” They send it to them. They come up with $10,000 or something small. That is small, but they’re only a 40% manufacturer. Therefore, they lose their manufacturer exemption. They owe sales tax. Their rationale is that they’re only using 40% of the warehouse or the facility. It’s ridiculous. I told him, “We can go to appeals and do all that, but I have a different idea.”
One of the lessons I want the people reading to take away is that the IRS doesn’t bend to politics. You can call your congressman and they will send a letter over. The IRS generally doesn’t extort people. They’ll stick to their guns. The state will bend to political pressure. I told him, “We still have our appeal rights and all that, but here’s what I would do. You should call your state representative, who happened to be the head of the finance committee here in Connecticut. I know because I looked him up.”
I said, “I would call him and I would tell him this. Explain what happened and say, “If this is what you’re going to do to me, fine. I will pay the bill. I am going to hold a press conference and explain to everyone that we are leaving Connecticut. I’m going to accept the offer from Rhode Island with no property taxes and no sales taxes. I’m moving up there and I’m laying everybody off because I will not do business in Connecticut.” He said to me, “We spoke to Rhode Island once. They never offered anything.” I said, “It doesn’t matter. Tell them that anyway.”
The state rep told him, “Do not do anything. I will get back to you.” He called the governor’s office and said, “What are you people doing? I know because someone at the DRS told me.” They called the commissioner and said, “What are you people doing?” They called him back the next day. They’re reissuing the report. He keeps his manufacturing exemption. However, they have the right to come back later and review it in a future audit. We’ve had plenty of audits. They go perfectly fine. What I have noticed and you’ve noticed is when they come in and the person has good records, it seems like they’re trying to find another way to come up with something.
The Power Of Proper Tax Documentation & Record-Keeping
They make it up as they go along. When I prepare anything for my client, I have extensive work papers and extensive Excel spreadsheets. I’m a CPA. I like everything to tie out in a nice little bow. If it doesn’t, it makes me crazy. If they come back, I want to be able to look at my work papers and say, “Where did I come up with this number?” because it can get convoluted.
I remember when you had to pull this stuff out and explain it. It’s not in three months. It’s a year and a half from now.
It will be a year to two years or something like that.
Who the heck remembers what was said?
It’s not going to be two months later. I know that we’ve been talking about how predatory California can be. Conversely, which I find a little incredible, there is a little-known program that started in 2019 that a lot of people don’t know about in California. If you form an entity in California, an LLC, S Corp, C Corp, or something like that that requires registration with the Secretary of State, you have to pay $800 a year. There’s an $800 fee. It doesn’t matter if you make $1, no dollars, or whatever. You have to pay for it.
A lot of my clients fail to pay this. They forget in the whole madness. This goes along with the BOI situation. They’ll form all these entities. People will do this thinking they’re going to start this business, and then they never dissolve it. The next thing I know, they’re getting this huge tax bill for these $800 that have accrued. These people are getting their bank accounts levied and the whole ball of wax is happening over this. People are like, “I don’t know.”
If you’re in Massachusetts or New York, your driver’s license can be suspended.
A Surprising Loophole: California’s Voluntary Dissolution Program
It goes sideways quickly. What California did, surprisingly, which I thought was one of the better moves they did, is they created what’s called a voluntary dissolution program. What this means is you fill out a form. It’s 3715 for a corp and 3716 for an LLC. You’re attesting that there are no assets, there’s no business, there’s no this, or there’s no that, nothing. You send it in as a voluntary dissolution.
The biggest one that I had wiped off the map was $56,000 that this guy owed from all of this accumulation of all these fees over the years. I got it all gone. They don’t even ask questions. They want it gone. I had asked a couple of people, and it’s costing them more to enforce it or collect it than it is for them to get rid of it. That was my first case. When I found this out was in 2019 when the program first came out. I filed it within two months after they opened up the program. That was the first one, $56,000.
I’m trying to get out that we have clients who do this. They open up these entities and they don’t do anything with them. They sit there forever, and then they have to pay $800. Everybody likes to go run out and get an LLC. Why? I don’t know, but they do. That’s conversely another way that you can get money removed for your client. Your client doesn’t know that it’s a very simple process to do this. They’re going to love you for days, especially if you can get $56,000 gone without having to prove anything but fill out a form and everything. They’ll dissolve it for you. To me, that was a great program.
Every now and then, they act very pragmatically.
I remember talking to the guy in 2019 when I did this. I asked him, “Why are you guys doing this?” He was the one who told me, “It’s a cost-benefit analysis for getting things collection-wise.” The Secretary of State is the one you pay, but the Franchise Tax Board is the collection enforcement for the Secretary of State. They’ll levy you to death.
California's Franchise Tax Board handles collection enforcement for the Secretary of State. Share on XAs I was saying with the SFRs, I had a case I told Eric where a guy had a real estate license and he did not file taxes for six years. They took out $35,000 or something like that. What they did was they took his mortgage interest statement, his 1098, took the interest amount, and multiplied it by 6. That’s the income number that they make up. That’s what they’re assuming. In order for you to pay this mortgage, that’s how much money you have to make. They’re like, “If you don’t file a return, we’re going to help you.” They’re ever so helpful. They’re going to file it for you.
He had all this money zapped out of his account. This doesn’t happen overnight. People are getting letters. We all know this. He came in to see me and I filed his returns, and he got his refund back. He was like, “They sent me this check.” He brought me this check and showed it to me. He was all nervous. I was like, “Cash it. That’s your money.”
There are some states where once they file that return, if you don’t challenge it like Connecticut, and you have 90 days to challenge it, it’s final. They will not reconsider it. They will not reopen it.
You can’t even file a replacement?
No. They have a return, and you missed an opportunity. Florida is the same way. For sales tax, they do an audit. I had this. I had a company call me. It’s $500,000. They all probably owed $50,000 or $60,000. I start looking, and Florida has no means for audit reconsideration or a Doubt as to Liability offer. I spoke to some folks who practice down there. I referred them over. They said they have a backdoor way to get to someone who can abate it, but technically, there is no program in Florida. You’re stuck.
The only thing with California is you have one year from the overpayment. It’s not from when it was paid. If they levy you for 2017, in 2024, if you put in the claim for refund or file the return, which, in essence, is the same thing because you file the return as it should be, that’s your claim for refund. They’ll send it to you. They have one year. It’s a very small window.
Why You Should Fear the State More Than The IRS
We’re running on time. The takeaway for everyone reading this is that I know everyone’s concerned about the Feds and the IRS. The state is not a joke. I’ll be honest. If you come to me and you have a balance due to the IRS that you don’t owe, we can fix that. We can file for audit reconsideration or a Doubt as to Liability to offer. You could pay it and seek a refund. If it’s open for collection, we can submit documents. You may not be able to get a refund. We may be beyond that, but the point is that it can be fixed.
The state does not work the same way. When I do this talk, I’ll often tell the audience, “Everyone’s afraid of the IRS. Screw the IRS. Fear the state. I’ll tell people, “Please pay the state. Pay the sales tax and the withholding tax. My partners can screw all your other creditors.” In Connecticut, they theoretically have an offer and compromise program. They don’t like taking offers.
Same with California. It’s there, but they don’t strongly advise it. I always tell my clients all the time, “Pay the state first.” As Eric has also said in some of his other OIC workshops, “Pay the state first,” to increase an offer and compromise or if you want to get on a payment plan. That helps with the IRS. We’ve talked about that before. The Franchise Tax Board can be a little squirrelly, but in my opinion, the CDTFA sales tax, these fools do not have a soul. I don’t think they have a soul. They’ll take your firstborn kid. They’ll drain the blood out of your body if it will pay for it. They’re hard to budge.
In their defense, I’ve had plenty of people come in and they owe the money. They didn’t pay for it. They collected it and never paid it. I got to be honest with you. You’re stealing. Effectively, you’ve embezzled. I know you don’t think of it that way, but you’ve embezzled the state’s funds.
It’s held in trust like payroll. It’s trust fund taxes like payroll because you’re held in trust. The owner could be liable like payroll.
They are. Here, even if you didn’t collect it or charge it, sales tax and payroll tax are a trust tax. You’re holding that in trust for the government. They take it pretty seriously. Thank you for doing this. It’s always fun to talk about the horror stories.
We’ve got many more.
We’ll do part two of this. Thanks, everyone, for tuning in. I’ll see you in the next episode. Leighanne, thank you very much.
It’s always a pleasure. Thanks for having me.
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About Leighanne Lafrenz Nickle
Mrs. Nickle is a California licensed CPA with a forensic accounting and tax practice in Rancho Cucamonga, California. Leighanne has over 20 years working in both public accounting and private industry. Mrs. Nickle owns and operates a California CPA firm, where the focus of her practice is representing taxpayers before the Internal Revenue Service, California Franchise Tax Board, the California Department of Tax and Fee (CDTFA), the California Employment Development Department (EDD), and California Child Support offices in Orange County, CA. In addition, she has served as an expert witness for civil and criminal court proceedings regarding forensic accounting, tax, payroll issues, and child support payments.
Leighanne currently serves as the Vice-President for the Inland Empire Chapter of the California Society of Tax Consultants, where she oversees continuing education and work as the liaison between the chapter and the IRS Stakeholders Liaison.
Mrs. Nickle also serves on the Committee on Tax (COT) with CalCPA (California CPA). As a member of the COT, she works directly with the California Franchise Tax Board (FTB) on tax matters and acts as a liaison between the local and state chapter and the California Franchise Tax Board.
