(a) The advocate shall undertake, to the extent not duplicative of existing programs, periodic review of property tax statements and other property tax forms prescribed by the board to determine both of the following:

(1) Whether the forms and their instructions promote or discourage taxpayer compliance.

(2) Whether the forms or questions therein are necessary and germane to the assessment function.

(b) The advocate shall undertake the review of taxpayer complaints and identify areas of recurrent conflict between taxpayers and assessment officers. This review shall include, but not be limited to, all of the following:

(1) The adequacy and timeliness of board and assessor responses to taxpayers’ written complaints and requests for information.

(2) The adequacy and timeliness of corrections of the assessment roll, cancellations of taxes, or issuances of refunds after taxpayers have provided legitimate and adequate information demonstrating the propriety of the corrections, cancellations, or refunds, including, but not limited to, the filing of documents required by law to claim these corrections, cancellations, or refunds.

(3) The timeliness, fairness, and accessibility of hearings and decisions by the board, county boards of equalization, or assessment appeals boards where taxpayers have filed timely applications for assessment appeal.

(4) The application of penalties and interest to property tax assessments or property tax bills where the penalty or interest is a direct result of the assessor’s failure to request specified information or a particular method of reporting information, or where the penalty or interest is a direct result of the taxpayer’s good faith reliance on written advice provided by the assessor or the board.

(c) Nothing in this section shall be construed to modify any other provision of law or the California Code of Regulations regarding requirements or limitations with respect to the correction of the assessment roll, the cancellation of taxes, the issuance of refunds, or the imposition of penalties or interest.

(d) The board shall annually conduct a public hearing, soliciting the input of assessors, other local agency representatives, and taxpayers, to address the advocate’s annual report pursuant to Section 5904, and to identify means to correct any problems identified in that report.

(Added by Stats. 1993, Ch. 387, Sec. 10. Effective January 1, 1994.)