Article from Quora:
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I was a victim of California’s Franchise Tax Board for several years. I DID NOT owe the tax, and I refused to pay. I live in Oregon. Never lived in California. Never worked in California. I refuse to travel through California, or even fly over the state. I banked with Bank of America, and all of a sudden I got a call from BofA, saying that my checking account was seized by the state of California for taxes owed. I investigated and found that the government of California talked with all banks that had branches in California, and demanded that those banks give them personal account numbers, under threat of not being allowed to operate their banks in California. My attorney, on behalf of me and a bunch of others in similar circumstances, sued California, and we won. California refused to pay, and appealed to the State of Appeals court. We won that one, too. California refused to pay and said they were appealing to the State Supreme Court. Just before the court date, we received a letter from California stating that they were not going to go to court. We all got reimbursed for our losses, including the illegal taxes, penalties, and interest. The penalties and interest were MORE than the taxes. They used that threat of penalties as a club when trying to intimidate us to pay the taxes that we knew we didn’t owe. The California Franchise Tax Board is a group of unprincipled crooks, who do WHATEVER is in the best interest of the state, legal or not! If California is out to get your money – DO NOT deal with a bank that has a branch in California. And – DO NOT send them ANY personal check because they will place a lien on your accounts, and in order to grab money from your account, they have to know the bank that you deal with, AND your account number.
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