California issues IOUs

California taxpayers who are waiting on refunds will continue to wait. The Franchise Tax Board has announced: "all requests for direct deposit of a State income or franchise tax refund will be issued as a paper registered warrant." If you receive a registered warrant in lieu of payment, the State Treasurer will not redeem it for cash until it matures on October 2, 2009. However, some banks will accept registered warrants as cash, so you may be able to deposit it into a bank account (and let the bank deal with redeeming the warrant in October). FAQs about registered warrants are available on the State Controller's website.