Tax Attorney in Daly City, California

Daly City has the largest Filipino-American population concentration in the United States — roughly one-third of the city's roughly 104,000 residents per Census, the reason for the 'Little Manila' branding. A U.S. person (citizen, green-card holder, or tax resident) with foreign financial accounts whose aggregate maximum value exceeded $10,000 at any point during the calendar year must file FinCEN Form 114 (FBAR) by April 15 with an automatic extension to October 15 under 31 USC §5314. Accounts at Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), BDO Unibank (Banco de Oro), Metrobank, Landbank of the Philippines, Security Bank, RCBC (Rizal Commercial Banking), UnionBank, China Bank Philippines, PSBank (Philippine Savings Bank), EastWest Bank, Philippine National Bank (PNB), and Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) all count toward the $10,000 aggregate threshold. Joint family accounts where a Daly City resident holds signature authority on a parent's, sibling's, or spouse's Philippine account still trigger FBAR under the 31 CFR §1010.350(e) signature-or-other-authority test. UITF (unit investment trust fund) and PERA (Personal Equity and Retirement Account) holdings count. Form 8938 under IRC §6038D adds a parallel IRS attachment to Form 1040 at higher thresholds ($50,000 single year-end / $75,000 single any-time; $100,000 / $150,000 married filing jointly). The Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures cure non-willful failures.

Bittner v. United States, 598 U.S. 85 (2023), is the Supreme Court decision that capped non-willful FBAR penalties at $10,000 per report (per year), not per account. Before Bittner, the IRS and some circuits applied the $10,000 non-willful penalty to each unreported account, multiplying penalties on filers with multiple Philippine accounts at BPI, BDO, Metrobank, Landbank, and others. Under Bittner, a Daly City filer who failed to file FBAR for ten years with five Philippine accounts each year now faces a cap at $100,000 ($10,000 per year times ten years) rather than $500,000 ($10,000 per account times five accounts times ten years). The decision narrows non-willful exposure substantially — Filipino-American filers who delayed compliance because of penalty fear now have a much smaller worst-case number to weigh. The willful penalty under 31 USC §5321(a)(5)(C) is still the greater of $100,000 (now adjusted for inflation) or 50 percent of the account balance at the time of the violation, per account per year. Bittner does not apply to willful exposure. The decision matters for choosing among Streamlined Domestic Offshore (5 percent miscellaneous offshore penalty), Streamlined Foreign Offshore (zero penalty), and the IRS Voluntary Disclosure Practice on Form 14457.

Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedures (SFOP) carry a zero-penalty result and apply where the taxpayer was a non-resident of the United States for at least one of the three most recent tax years (failing the IRC §7701(b) substantial-presence test for that year). Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures (SDOP) carry a 5 percent miscellaneous offshore penalty on the highest year-end balance of the unreported foreign accounts over the six-year covered period and apply where the taxpayer was a U.S. resident in each of the three most recent tax years but the non-compliance was non-willful. Most Daly City filers — long-settled in the United States with permanent residence in San Mateo County — fall under SDOP. A Filipino national who lived and worked in Manila or Cebu for one of the three most recent years (a balikbayan returnee, an OFW returning, or a dual-resident in transition) may qualify for SFOP. Both procedures require six years of amended returns plus six years of delinquent FBAR filings, a written non-willful statement, and full payment of the tax plus interest. Both procedures close out the FBAR and Form 8938 exposure for the covered years.

Most balikbayan box shipments and Pera Padala remittances are gifts from the Daly City sender to the Philippine recipient, not the other direction — Form 3520 is filed by the U.S. recipient of a foreign gift, not by the U.S. sender. The sender's tax treatment depends on the amount and recipient. Gifts from a U.S. person to a foreign person of cash or property worth more than $19,000 in 2025 (the annual gift-tax exclusion, indexed) require Form 709 (gift-tax return) by the sender, with the lifetime exemption under IRC §2010 ($13.99 million 2025) absorbing the gift in nearly all cases. The Form 3520 question runs the other direction: a Daly City U.S. person who receives a gift from a non-resident alien individual (a parent in Manila, an uncle in Cebu, a sibling in Davao) exceeding $100,000 in the aggregate during the year under IRC §6039F must file Form 3520 with the 1040. Gifts from foreign corporations or partnerships above $19,570 (2024 threshold, indexed) also trigger Form 3520. Failure to file Form 3520 carries a 5 percent per month penalty up to 25 percent of the gift value under §6677. Inheritance from a Philippine relative — common where Daly City Filipino-Americans inherit Manila condos, Cebu beach property, or family farmland in the provinces — runs through Form 3520 reporting plus the U.S. estate-and-gift consequences for the foreign-source estate.

GSIS (Government Service Insurance System) and SSS (Social Security System) are the Philippine government and private-sector retirement systems. Many Daly City Filipino-American retirees who worked decades in the Philippines before emigrating receive monthly GSIS or SSS pension benefits while resident in the United States. The U.S.-Philippines Income Tax Treaty (entered into force 1983, as amended) addresses pension treatment in Article 18. Government-service pensions (GSIS) are generally taxable only by the paying state (the Philippines) unless the recipient is a national and resident of the United States, in which case the U.S. has primary taxing rights. Private-sector social security pensions (SSS) are generally taxable only by the recipient's state of residence under Article 19 — for a U.S.-resident recipient, that means U.S. tax with no Philippine tax. The interplay with the U.S. Social Security Totalization Agreement (signed 2019, in force) coordinates contribution credits across the two systems. A U.S.-resident Daly City retiree reports GSIS or SSS pension income on Form 1040 line 5a/5b (pensions) or line 6a/6b (Social Security) depending on classification, with the §901 foreign tax credit for any Philippine tax actually withheld. We coordinate the treaty position with the FBAR analysis where the pension flows to a Philippine bank account.

Westlake — the Henry Doelger 1949 tract south and west of John Daly Boulevard, immortalized in Pete Seeger's 'Little Boxes' — and Crocker (the original 1907 Daniel Burnham subdivision east of Mission Street) hold some of the longest-tenured Prop 13 base-year values in California. A Doelger Westlake home purchased by a grandparent in 1950 for roughly $9,500 carries a Prop 13 base-year value of roughly $40,000 to $70,000 today after the 2 percent annual escalation, against a market value over $1 million. Proposition 19 (Cal Const Art XIIIA §2.1, effective February 16, 2021) sharply narrowed the parent-child and grandparent-grandchild exclusions. Before Prop 19, a parent could transfer the principal residence plus up to $1 million of other property to a child without triggering reassessment. After Prop 19, the parent-child exclusion applies only to the primary residence and only if the child uses the property as their own primary residence within one year of transfer. Investment properties, rental units, and second homes lose the exclusion entirely. The market-value-over-$1-million-above-base provision phases additional value into reassessment even on a qualifying primary residence. For a Daly City family transferring a 75-year-old Doelger home, the difference between qualifying for the primary-residence exclusion (child moves in) and not qualifying (child rents it out, or already owns a home) can be $10,000 to $14,000 a year in property tax forever. We coordinate the Prop 19 election with the San Mateo County Assessor at 555 County Center, Redwood City, the trust documentation, and the IRS §1014 stepped-up-basis position on death.

Yes, if the market value on January 1 of the lien date is below the Prop 13 factored base-year value, you can request a temporary downward Proposition 8 adjustment under Cal Const Art XIIIA §2. Most long-tenure Westlake, Crocker, St. Francis Heights, Serramonte, Southern Hills, Bayshore, Hillside, and Mission Street-corridor homes carry base-year values so far below market that Prop 8 is not in play. Recent purchases — 2020 to 2022 buyers across Daly City's hillside neighborhoods, View Pointe and Pointe Pacific condos, and Skyline-area units — sometimes paid above what the post-2022 cooling market supports, and Prop 8 becomes available. The path: file the informal Request for Decline in Market Value Reassessment with the San Mateo County Assessor at 555 County Center, Redwood City CA 94063, with three to six comparable sales from the same Daly City neighborhood within 90 days of January 1. If the informal review does not produce the correct number, file the formal Assessment Appeals Board application before the September 15 deadline under R&TC §1603 at the Clerk of the Board at 400 County Center. San Mateo County uses the September 15 deadline for the regular roll. The reduction is annual — the Assessor restores the factored base-year value when market recovers, capped at the 2 percent Prop 13 escalation.

The Daly City BART Station at 500 John Daly Boulevard is the northern terminus of BART's Yellow and Green lines and the primary commute gateway to San Francisco's Financial District (Embarcadero, Montgomery, Powell, and Civic Center stops) and Mission corridor. Tens of thousands of Daly City residents make this commute daily, with additional residents using SamTrans bus connections and the Bayshore Caltrain station just over the SF county line. IRC §132(f) qualified transportation fringe lets an employer provide up to $315 per month in 2024 (indexed) of tax-free transit-pass and commuter-vanpool benefits, plus a separate $315 per month for qualified parking. Many San Francisco employers offer the pre-tax election through Clipper Direct, Edenred, HealthEquity, or WageWorks. The Clipper card loaded with BART fares qualifies. The benefit reduces both federal income tax under §1 and California state tax under R&TC §17041 because California conforms to §132(f). If your employer does not offer §132(f), you cannot deduct commute costs on your own return — the §67(g) suspension of miscellaneous itemized deductions (2018 through 2025) removed the unreimbursed-employee-business-expense deduction.

California is your state of residence and taxes worldwide income on Form 540 under R&TC §17041. There is no city or county income tax in California — San Francisco, San Mateo County, and Daly City do not impose a separate income tax on individuals. The work location (San Francisco) does not change your state-tax obligation as long as you are a California resident anywhere in the state. The sourcing analysis under R&TC §17951 matters only after you leave California: wages for work performed in California remain California-source under Reg. §17951-5(b) even if you become a Texas, Nevada, or Florida resident afterward, which is how the FTB pursues departing tech workers whose RSU and ESPP vests trail the move. While you remain a Daly City resident, you owe California tax on every dollar regardless of where the employer is located. Local taxes that may apply: the City of Daly City Utility Users Tax on phone, electric, and gas service; the Daly City Business License Tax if you operate any side business at a Daly City address; the San Francisco Gross Receipts Tax if you are an S-corp owner or self-employed contractor whose services are performed in San Francisco (the SF GRT registers separately under SF Business and Tax Regulations Code Article 12-A-1).

Post-2020 remote-work exits from Daly City to Las Vegas, Reno, Henderson, Boise, and Austin pulled Bay Area workers across state lines while many kept long-tenure Daly City homes as rentals or as places for grown children. R&TC §17014 defines a California resident as someone in California for other than a temporary or transitory purpose, or a domiciliary temporarily outside the state. The nine-factor domicile test set out in Appeal of Stephen Bragg (2003-SBE-002) and developed in Appeal of Bindley (2018) and Corbett v. FTB examines: location of family and primary residence, time spent in each state, location of personal possessions and business interests, state of vehicle registration, voter registration, driver's license, professional licenses, social and community ties, and where the taxpayer claims homestead exemption. Keeping a Westlake or Serramonte home as a rented Schedule E property is defensive; keeping it unrented as a pied-à-terre is harder. The deferred-RSU and ESPP wrinkle hits Daly City SF-tech-employee exits: vests after the departure can still be California-source income under Reg. §17951-5(b) if the underlying work was performed in California. We map the facts against Bragg, Bindley, Corbett, and the sourcing regulation before any FTB Notice of Proposed Assessment lands.

Daly City's Filipino-American business corridor along Mission Street, Geneva Avenue, the Top of the Hill restaurant cluster, the Serramonte Center anchor, Westlake Shopping Center, and the inline-retail strips of Hillside and Junipero Serra Boulevards carries a recurring CDTFA sales-tax and FTB business-tax load. Restaurants (Goldilocks, Jollibee Daly City, Red Ribbon, Max's Restaurant, Kuya's, Tselogs, and the Filipino fast-casual cluster), grocery stores (Seafood City, Island Pacific), balikbayan-box shippers (LBC Express, Forex Cargo, Atlas Shippers, Johnny Air Cargo, Manila Forwarder), money-remittance services (PNB Remittance, Metrobank Direct, BDO Remit), and sari-sari stores all collect CDTFA sales tax at the Daly City combined rate of 9.875 percent (7.25 percent statewide plus San Mateo County and city add-ons under R&TC §6051 et seq). Unremitted sales tax produces both the entity assessment and personal dual-determinations against owners under R&TC §6829. EDD payroll exposure on cash-paid kitchen and warehouse staff triggers UIC §1735 personal liability. FTB business income flows through Schedule C (sole proprietor), Schedule E (S-corp), or Form 568 (LLC) with the $800 annual minimum franchise tax under R&TC §17942. ERC clawback letters under CP207 are recurring across the Daly City restaurant cluster post-pandemic. We handle the audit defense, the personal liability allocation, and the CDTFA Petition for Redetermination across all three agencies.

Daly City imposes a Utility Users Tax (UUT) at 6.5 percent on electricity, gas, telephone (landline and cellular), and video service for residential and business users under the Daly City Municipal Code. The tax is collected by the utility provider — PG&E, Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile — and remitted to the city. The UUT shows on monthly utility bills as a line item. The Daly City Business License Tax applies to any business operating in the city, including home-based contractors, online sellers shipping from a Daly City address, balikbayan-box services, sari-sari stores, restaurants, and professional offices. Registration runs through the Daly City Finance Department at City Hall, 333 90th Street, Daly City CA 94015 (the Civic Center). The tax rate is calculated on gross receipts and varies by business category. Annual renewal is required. Hotel and short-term lodging operators in Daly City face a Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) at the city rate. These local taxes are separate from state CDTFA sales tax, FTB income tax, and federal IRS obligations. Failure to register can compound with the FTB and CDTFA assessment when an audit opens.

Daly City sits on the San Mateo County line immediately south of San Francisco's city-county border, which puts two IRS Taxpayer Assistance Centers within a short drive. The IRS San Mateo TAC at 977 South Claremont Street, San Mateo CA 94402 is roughly 14 miles south via El Camino Real or I-280, and serves Peninsula taxpayers between South San Francisco and Palo Alto. The IRS San Francisco TAC at 450 Golden Gate Avenue inside the Phillip Burton Federal Building is roughly 8 miles north via US-101 or BART — typically closer in commute time for residents of the northern Daly City neighborhoods (Bayshore, Crocker, Hillside, Mission Street corridor) and easier by transit from the Daly City BART Station. The Oakland TAC at 1301 Clay Street inside the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building is the East Bay alternative. Appointments through apps.irs.gov/app/office-locator or 844-545-5640. For most resolution work, in-person visits are not required — we represent clients by Form 2848 Power of Attorney and route notices directly to counsel.

The United States Tax Court holds Northern California trial sessions at the Phillip Burton Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse, 450 Golden Gate Avenue, San Francisco CA 94102. A Daly City petitioner designates 'San Francisco, California' as the place of trial on the petition under Tax Court Rule 140. The route from Daly City runs US-101 north or BART from the Daly City Station to the Civic Center BART Station — roughly 8 miles and 20 to 30 minutes outside commute hours. Sacramento at 501 I Street is the alternative Northern California trial city, but San Francisco is the default for Daly City matters. The petition itself files through the Tax Court's DAWSON electronic-filing system or with the court clerk in Washington, D.C. The 90-day clock from a Notice of Deficiency under IRC §6213(a) is jurisdictional and the Tax Court cannot extend it. Daly City's federal docket otherwise runs through the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division (Phillip Burton Federal Building) or the Oakland Division (Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building, 1301 Clay Street) depending on case assignment.

Daly City taxpayers do not have a dedicated FTB field office in San Mateo County. The closest FTB Field Office is the San Francisco office at 121 Spear Street, Suite 400 — roughly 8 miles north via US-101 or BART from the Daly City Station — which is the primary venue for Peninsula and Daly City matters. The FTB Oakland Field Office at the Elihu M. Harris State Office Building, 1515 Clay Street, Suite 305, is the East Bay alternative. The FTB San Jose Field Office at 96 North Third Street, Suite 600, is the South Bay alternative. These offices handle residency audits under R&TC §17014, Notice of Proposed Assessment protests under R&TC §19041, FTB Settlement Bureau review under R&TC §19443, and walk-in services for individual taxpayers and entity filers. Most resolution work runs by phone, secure portal through MyFTB, and written submission. Verify current public hours through ftb.ca.gov/help/contact/office-locations.html before any walk-in visit.

60 days from the date on the Notice of Proposed Assessment to file a protest under California Revenue & Taxation Code §19041. The protest goes to the FTB and triggers Protest Hearing Officer review. If the FTB issues a Notice of Action against you, a California Office of Tax Appeals petition follows within 30 days under R&TC §19045. The OTA is an independent tribunal that replaced the State Board of Equalization on tax appeals in 2018; Daly City petitioners draw the OTA's Sacramento headquarters at 400 R Street, the San Francisco hearing room, or video-conference hearing for most matters. If you miss the 60 days, the assessment becomes final and the FTB moves to collection. The fix at that stage narrows to a refund claim under R&TC §19306 after payment, or a compromise under R&TC §19443 based on collectibility. Both windows can be extended only by mutual written consent. Compared to the federal 90-day Tax Court window from a Notice of Deficiency under IRC §6213(a), the California window is shorter and easier to miss.

IRC §6502(a) gives the IRS ten years from the date of assessment to collect; after the federal Collection Statute Expiration Date, the debt becomes uncollectible by operation of law. Tolling events extend the federal CSED: a pending Offer in Compromise (OIC pendency plus 30 days), bankruptcy (stay plus six months), Collection Due Process hearings, Innocent Spouse claims, and continuous absence from the United States for six months or more. California Revenue & Taxation Code §19255 gives the FTB twenty years — double the federal tail. CDTFA collection runs ten years under R&TC §6711 with similar tolling. EDD operates under its own collection window in the Unemployment Insurance Code. A federal Daly City balance assessed in 2016 may approach CSED expiration in 2026, while the FTB equivalent continues to be collectible until 2036. Submitting a federal OIC restarts the federal clock. Sometimes a Partial Pay Installment Agreement that runs out the federal statute is the better federal play, paired with a separate FTB compromise under R&TC §19443 to address the longer state tail. The two strategies are decided together.

Seton Medical Center at 1900 Sullivan Avenue in Daly City (operating under AHMC Healthcare since 2020) and Kaiser Permanente South San Francisco Medical Center at 1200 El Camino Real, plus UCSF affiliations, Mills-Peninsula Health Services, and Dignity Health Bay Area, all employ a mix of W-2 employed physicians and 1099 contracted physicians (anesthesia groups, radiology groups, ER staffing, hospitalist coverage). The 1099 physician carries Schedule C / 1099-NEC income subject to self-employment tax under IRC §1401 at 15.3 percent on the first $168,600 of SE income plus 2.9 percent Medicare above, federal income tax up to 37 percent under §1, California up to 13.3 percent under R&TC §17041, and the §1411 net investment income tax on passive income above thresholds. SEP-IRA, Solo 401(k), and Cash Balance plan deferrals under §415(c) move significant pre-tax dollars at high income. The §199A qualified business income deduction does not apply to the SSTB-classified physician income above the §199A(d)(3) threshold ($241,950 single / $483,900 MFJ 2024 indexed). Malpractice insurance is deductible under §162. We handle the IRS and FTB resolution side when balances build from inconsistent quarterly estimates.

City of Daly City employees (Police Department, Fire Department through the North County Fire Authority, Public Works, Library, Parks and Recreation, Finance, and City Manager's office at 333 90th Street) and SamTrans employees (San Mateo County Transit District based in San Carlos) participate in CalPERS (California Public Employees' Retirement System) for the defined-benefit pension and frequently maintain a §457(b) deferred-compensation plan and a §401(k) supplemental plan through their employer's approved vendors. CalPERS retirement benefits are subject to federal income tax but exempt from California income tax under R&TC §17501 only where the taxpayer is a CalPERS retiree resident of California — moving out of state shifts the tax to the new state of residence (the federal Pension Source Tax Act of 1996 at 4 USC §114 prohibits states from taxing nonresident retirees on retirement benefits earned in the state). The §457(b) plan operates under §457(b)(2) contribution limits ($23,000 elective deferral 2024 plus $7,500 age-50 catch-up plus the §457(b)(3) special three-year catch-up). The §457(b) plan does not aggregate with the §403(b) or §401(k) limit, so dual-plan participation moves significant pre-tax dollars in late-career years. We coordinate the §457(b) treatment with any IRS or FTB resolution work where deferral allocations affect monthly disposable income on Form 433-A.

No. The firm is headquartered at 1100 S. Robertson Boulevard in Los Angeles and represents clients across all 58 California counties. Daly City engagements run by phone, secure client portal, email, and Tagalog-and-Cebuano-language community outreach where needed; in-person meetings happen by appointment at the Los Angeles office for clients who prefer face-to-face. We appear at the IRS San Mateo Taxpayer Assistance Center at 977 South Claremont Street, the IRS San Francisco TAC at 450 Golden Gate Avenue, the FTB San Francisco Field Office at 121 Spear Street, the CDTFA San Francisco District Office at 121 Spear Street, the San Mateo County Assessment Appeals Board at 400 County Center, Redwood City, the San Mateo County Assessor at 555 County Center, the U.S. Tax Court San Francisco trial sessions at the Phillip Burton Federal Building (450 Golden Gate Avenue), the Phillip Burton Federal Building for NDCA San Francisco Division matters, the San Mateo County Superior Court at 400 County Center, the City of Daly City Civic Center at 333 90th Street for local business-license and UUT matters, and the California Court of Appeal First Appellate District at 350 McAllister Street, San Francisco as case calendaring requires. BART, US-101, El Camino Real, and I-280 connect Daly City to the broader Peninsula and Bay Area.