We are both lawyers, I don't know how often you have worked with CA secretary of State and Franchise Tax Board, but I will tell you this, in thousands of interactions I have never had the franchise tax board waive a $800 minimum franchise tax after it has been incurred. Even if the owner was indigent, the business not just dejure inactive but defacto inactive, and they just wanted to dissolve to avoid incurring additional penalties...Not once, ever, and they would initiate collection actions.
On the other hand, when it is legitimate - lets be careful not to read additional facts here - an owner may dissolve an LLC before incurring the franchise tax obligation and open a new LLC...even with the same name, and it is not tax evasion. Obviously returns are a separate issue and final returns, even with no income or loses, would be filed. A side project with no income is a perfect example of when this might be done properly without issue.
On the other hand, when it is legitimate - lets be careful not to read additional facts here - an owner may dissolve an LLC before incurring the franchise tax obligation and open a new LLC...even with the same name, and it is not tax evasion. Obviously returns are a separate issue and final returns, even with no income or loses, would be filed. A side project with no income is a perfect example of when this might be done properly without issue.