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Tiny not-for-profit (“no taxes due”) HomeOwners Associations – H O A – in California require some ungodly things:

• insurance to cover officer errors and omissions (it won’t cover fraud, Adam Schiff),
• utilities and maintenance for common areas,
• registration and maintenance of a California entity (not zero) and
• taxes (zero)

Frequencies and amounts of payments vary.

Our major expenses are insurance (45%) and landscaping (40%). Some H O A’s have bigger expenses. Reserve study, as a sole example, is a hidden tax we choose to avoid.

The CA Secretary of State (entity reporting) and the CA Franchise Tax Board (tax reporting) are bestowed upon us if we wish to do anything with anyone, anywhere at anytime. Keep in mind we could let the common area landscape go to crap. But if you cause a misalignment of SoS and FTB, you’re “toast”.

Those two California agencies have to be staffed and resourced to perform documentation and reporting standards, where imperfection in achieving 1 of which can bring the H O A to “suspension” status – referred to above as toast.

Those agency staff and resources (FTB budget + SoS budget) are funded by tax collections – don’t call them revenues, EVER.

In order to change our 2 H O A officers, the bank won’t do it if H O A is “suspended”. Remember, we don’t pay taxes.

Untying this quagmire meant (and still needs attention) going to SoS, waiting to hear I need to go to FTB, waiting to hear I need to call SoS from the FTB parking lot to hear I need call SoS, to hear I need to resubmit all forms to SoS and wait for FTB to update system. “But that will only take 5 days”.

Please know this is not only NOT funded by H O A tax collections, it’s funded by everyone else’s!

Am I ducking stupid? I know you are, what am I?

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