You have better ways of colouring an equation. See for example: this question and its answers. I have used empheq in my example. With tcolorbox, you can be more fancier.
Now the real problem. The following code works with the help of marginnote package.
\documentclass{book}
\usepackage{mathtools}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\definecolor{background}{RGB}{255,255,170}
\usepackage{empheq}
\newcommand*\mybox[1]{%
\colorbox{background}{\hspace{1em}#1\hspace{1em}}}
\usepackage{kantlipsum}
\usepackage[fulladjust]{marginnote}
\setlength{\marginparsep}{5mm}
\setlength{\marginparwidth}{1in}
\reversemarginpar
\begin{document}
\kant[1]
\begin{empheq}[box=\mybox]{align}
R_A+R_B &=\frac{R_3(R_1+R_2)}{R_1+R_2+R_3}\marginnote{Some margin note here}
\end{empheq}
\kant[2]
\clearpage
\kant[1]
\begin{empheq}[box=\mybox]{align}
R_A+R_B &=\frac{R_3(R_1+R_2)}{R_1+R_2+R_3}\marginnote{Some margin note here}
\end{empheq}
\kant[2]
\end{document}

As you didn't reveal the document class you are using, I have used book class. If you are using memoir, you may better use the native \marginpar command.