The Fourth Quarter of 2012 was a busy time in California from a tax legislative standpoint. California residents potentially saw a significant increase in their personal income taxes as a result of the passage of proposition 30. In addition, sales tax rates have increased effective January 1st, 2013. California based businesses should see some tax relief in the form of the mandatory single sales factor beginning in 2013 and potential refund opportunities as a result of the Court of Appeals decision in Gillette v. FTB. Further, complicated issues associated with the California research credit where hopefully addressed by the FTB during its interested party meeting in October 2012 and as usual the State Board of Equalization is aggressively pursuing businesses who are not properly registered to collect and remit sales and use tax