Why do California tax offices have such weird names? I mean, how come they’re not simply “The State Internal Revenue Service” and “Teh State Board of Tax Assessment”? What on earth is a Franchise Tax? And “Board of Equalization” sounds like something that would have been instituted in post-revolutionary Russia.
The California State Board of Equalization started back in 1879 and was charged with the task of making sure that property tax was collected equally (!!!) throughout the state. It spends most of its time now collecting sales tax.
It has four members which are elected by district and the state controller who serves ex officio.
I couldn’t find a starting date for the Franchise Tax Board, but it collects income and corporation taxes. It has three members, the controller, the chair of the Board of Equalization, and the state Finance Director. I’m guessing that it’s a Progressive Era invention.
I suppose the names were chosen because they made sense at the time and there is no good reason to change them.