Spidell Publishing reports:

The FTB recently encountered an error processing some submissions of Form 100S, California S Corporation Franchise or Income Tax Return, for the 2013 tax year. As a result, the FTB system reported to the BOE that these entities had a change of ownership during 2013. This information was used by the BOE to generate erroneous letters to as many as 2,600 corporations for failing to report their change in ownership. These corporations had not, in fact, had a change in ownership.

The FTB has resolved the error, and they are fixing their records and sending corrected data to the BOE. Taxpayers who were impacted by this will receive a letter from the FTB explaining the situation and apologizing for the error and any inconvenience it may have caused.

There is no action required on behalf of the corporations impacted. All records at the FTB and the BOE will be corrected to reflect accurate information from the 2013 Form 100S filed by the corporation.

If corporations have additional questions regarding this situation, they can contact the FTB at (800) 852-5711.

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service announced today that it will accept applications for the Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) and Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) grant programs through June 2, 2014. Some organizations can apply to receive annual funding for up to three years.

Applications must be submitted through Grants.gov by June 2, 2014. Previous grant recipients have the option to apply for up to three years of annual funding, which reduces the amount of paperwork that must be completed annually, and helps recipients with budget planning.

Interested applicants can find TCE and VITA application packages on Grants.gov. Electronic versions of the grant application package instructions, Publication 1101 for TCE and Publication 4671 for VITA, can be found on the IRS.gov website.

The TCE program was established in 1978 to provide tax counseling and return preparation to persons who are 60 or older. Volunteers who provide free federal income tax help to seniors nationwide receive free training and technical assistance.

The VITA program, created in 1969, provides free federal income tax filing assistance to underserved communities. The VITA Grant program was established in 2007 to supplement the VITA program. The grant program enables VITA to extend services to underserved populations in hard-to-reach urban and non-urban areas. It increases the taxpayer’s ability to electronically file returns, and enhances volunteer training to improve the accuracy rate of returns prepared at VITA sites.