Can my girlfriend be garnished for this supposed back taxes she owes?

She needs to call the tax board asap. They have no authority to do this to her, but if they tried to contact her in the past and she did not receive their communications or ignored them, they estimated the tax and now are trying to collect it. The only way to get the garnishments to stop and to get her money back is to start a dialog with the tax board. If she cannot or does not feel comfortable talking to the board on her own, she should talk to a tax attorney who should be able to easily help her resolve this unfortunate situation.

The California FTB can and does do this. The FTB probably sent notices out to her that she could of responded to that would have prevented this, but often those notices go to an old address so the taxpayer never receives them. When a return is not filed, the state has no limitation on trying to collect taxes that were owed for the tax year. Your girlfriend should file her return(s) for those years using the information from Social Security as soon as possible. She should also demand refund of last year's refund and all money seized on a garnishment. She may not be able to get money taken more than a year before her demand because of the statute of limitations on refunds. Speak with FTB and tell them the returns are going to be filed to verify where the returns should be sent. Also, because it will take some time for California to process her return, she may be able to get the garnishment removed or reduced by setting up an installment payment or showing that her financial condition and income is such that she is in a financial hardship. After the returns are filed and processed, if California does not refund the money taken, she will have to decide whether or not to bring legal action against the state to get the money refunded.

The first step would be to contact the California State Tax Franchise Board and determine what they used to enter the assessment. Generally, a state tax agency is not going to enter an assessment of taxes owed unless it has enough information with which to calculate the debt. This suggests that they used a W-2, 1099, or other form of wage earning statement that was reported to them. I've never personally heard of any government tax agency entering a tax assessment based on the fact that someone took a class and had "earning potential;" there would be no way for the tax agency to calculate that potential, much less prove that it was earned. Be sure that you are dealing with the California State Tax Franchise Board and not some frivolous company posing to be the government. Look up the number for the tax agency and give them a call. Specifically, you may want to get in touch with their taxpayer advocate office. There are many scams out there that will try to get you to pay money under the guise that they are the I.R.S. or a state agency looking to collect taxes, so it's always best to be sure you know who you're dealing with. Lastly, if you contact the California State Tax Franchise Board and you're unable to determine what's going on, or they're unwilling to work with you, then I would suggest hiring a competent tax attorney or accountant who has dealt with tax debt resolution issues. Because this is a California tax issue, you should contact a California attorney or accountant. It appears that you posted this question in the Alabama section of LawQA, so you may want to repost your question for California.