The way it was in our paper this morning was that if you owed 1 cent when you filed your tax return you had to pay a 5% penalty on the total amount of your tax.
What you paid in witholding or estimated doesn’t count.
Are you referring to the SDUT article that said “Taxpayers who owe money to the state at the end of 2009 would pay a one-time, 5 percent income tax surcharge, although it would drop to 2.5 percent if California gets its expected share of money from the federal stimulus bill. “
IMO, that is a bit misleading. The fact is, it doesn’t matter if you owe more at time of filing, or if you are due a refund. If you had taxable income, you’ll be subject to the 5% surtax.
I haven’t seen the actual words in the legislation, but that is the only way they could possibly come up with a $3.3 billion dollar estimate of increased revenues.