California tax agency says,
"During the period from March 8, 2019 to March 11, 2019, a system error caused us to issue refunds to approximately 23,500 taxpayers without first verifying the claimed wage withholding. This may have led to the taxpayer's withholding being increased or decreased incorrectly. Additionally, the taxpayer may have received a Notice of Tax Return Change with an incorrect explanation of the adjustment."
But, if they did not verify the claimed wage withholding, on what basis did they make an adjustment to the taxpayer's reported amount? If this isn't a serious case of deliberately obfuscated bureaucratese to cover up a serious system error, I don't know what is.
https://www.ftb.ca.gov/professionals/ta ... 2019.shtml