Better Late than Never? New York Issues Guidance on Hedge Fund Deferred Compensation

For years we’ve been following a ticking income tax time bomb of sorts, dealing with a big 2017 issue for hedge fund managers receiving deferred income. We first started talking about this in 2013 (click here for the article) and followed-up on it a few times later (including here), wondering how states would react to all this. But up until last week, we’ve heard nothing from the New York tax department on the issue.

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What is considered a “Permanent Place of Abode?”

New Tribunal Case Offers Up a New Framework for Answering this Question

New York’s two-part test for statutory residency has been heavily litigated over the years, and one of the biggest issues has involved the determination as to whether a taxpayer maintained a “permanent place of abode.” In 2014, the State’s highest court in Gaied v. NYS Tax Appeals Tribunal struck down the Tax Department’s overly-broad interpretation of “permanent place of abode” in favor of a more sensible interpretation. In doing so, the High Court declared that in order for a place to constitute a permanent place of abode (“PPA”), “there must be some basis to conclude that the dwelling was utilized as the taxpayer’s residence.” And later in the decision, the Court opined that to qualify as a PPA, “the taxpayer must, himself, have a residential interest in the property”

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Tax Department Extends Some Filing Deadlines Due to Nor’easter

Governor Andrew Cuomo declared a State Disaster Emergency for counties affected by the March 2018 Nor’easters that began early this month. If you hadn’t heard the term before, a nor’easter is a large cyclone usually accompanied by heavy rain or snow that can cause hurricane-force winds, blizzard conditions, and coastal flooding. To us folks in Buffalo, we also call this “Tuesday.”

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Report on Executive Budget

It’s “budget season!” On January 16^th, Governor Cuomo released the FY 2019 Executive Budget, which is available here, and one day later the Department of Taxation and Finance issued a preliminary report on consequences of the Federal Tax reform and possible legislative responses, which can be found here. We blogged about some of this last month. Then, just last week, in his “30-day amendments” to the FY 2019 Executive Budget, we got to see more of the Governor’s proposals take shape.  Now the dust has somewhat settled on all these proposals, so let’s take a look.  The highlights of the proposed amendments, which include a new optional Employer Compensation Expense Tax system, increasing the options for charitable deductions, and provisions designed to decouple the state tax code from the federal tax code, are summarized below. 

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Big Changes Afoot in New York Tax Law?

We are just a couple days into 2018, and the fallout from the recently passed federal tax reform has already begun.

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Not Fake News: Congress Shuts Down Pre-payment of 2018 State Income Taxes!

On Friday afternoon, we emailed many clients and friends regarding the possibility of a “last chance” to claim a disappearing federal income tax deduction by paying 2018 state income tax estimates at the end of 2017. Apparently some of you didn’t get the email until Sunday. Sad! More on that below.

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New York State Tax Department Releases 2018 Estimated Tax Vouchers

Due to the likely elimination of almost the entire SALT deduction in 2018, this could be the last opportunity for taxpayers to pay state and local taxes and still ensure a full federal tax deduction. Keep reading to learn more.

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The Federal Tax Reform Proposals and the Likelihood of a Disappearing SALT Deduction

Here's what you need to know about the likelihood of a disappearing SALT deduction.

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The Annual Report of the Division of Tax Appeals and Tax Appeals Tribunal

On October 17, 2017, the New York State Division of Tax Appeals and Tax Appeals Tribunal (collectively “DTA”) submitted its annual report to the Governor and heads of the Senate and Assembly for the 2016-17 fiscal year. Numbers-wise, we don’t see a tremendous change over last year in the outcomes of Administrative Law Judge and Tax Appeals Tribunal cases.

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Drips and Drops on Taxing Hedge Fund Managers’ Deferred Comp

For years, there have been whispers about a big 2017 tax issue for hedge-fund managers. What’s the deal?

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