About This Blog
Taxes in New York (TiNY) is a blog by the Hodgson Russ LLP State and Local Tax Practice Group members Chris Doyle, Peter Calleri, and Zoe Peppas. The weekly reports are intended to go out every Tuesday after the New York State Division of Tax Appeals (DTA) publishes new ALJ Determinations and Tribunal Decisions. In addition to the weekly reports, TiNY may provide analysis of and commentary on other developments in the world of New York tax law.
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LinkedIn ProfileTiNY Report for November 19, 2020 (reporting on DTA cases issued October 29, November 5, and November 12)
We’re taking a new writer for a test-drive this issue. Constant readers, meet Joe Tantillo. Being new here, he heard: “Would you like to write a tiny report this week?”, when I actually asked “Would you like to write the TiNY Report this week?” Anyway, after he said “yes,” he really couldn’t back out when he realized the (thankless? non-billable? mostly-ignored?) wonderful opportunity he was being given. Even better: Joe said he told his family members that he was writing for a blog, and two of them said they were actually going to read it. So that should increase our readership by, like, 15%! At this pace, we may have twenty or so readers by 2025.
That was a couple of weeks ago. Since then the DTA has published another round or two of cases, so you get some of Joe and some of (very) Senior Editor Chris Doyle this week. Enjoy!
Comment
TiNY Report for October 29, 2020 (reporting on DTA cases issued October 22)
There were no cases on which to report last week. This week, there are two measly ALJ Determinations, and both are timies. It’s a good thing the TiNY editorial staff isn’t paid by-the-word. One of the timies involves an electronically-provided notice. Electronic issuance of notices… maybe it’s my age showing, but I just don’t trust the process. So, while I was writing this, I toggled my browser over to the Department’s website, logged-on to my OLS (on-line service) account, and confirmed that I have not elected to accept electronic delivery of any notice. If you have an OLS account, I suggest you do the same.
TiNY Report for October 15, 2020 (reporting on DTA cases issued September 24, October 1 and October 8)
We have some pent-up cases this week. I took a few weeks off from TiNY because: (a) the cases were not particularly noteworthy, and (b) if I had to write up one more timy I was going to start my Thursdays by opening the bourbon bottle before opening my web browser. So I took a little mental health break from TiNY, and am now anxious to report on the one Tribunal Order, five ALJ Determinations, and two ALJ Orders from the last three weeks.
TiNY Report for September 17, 2020 (reporting on DTA case issued September 10)
And so the “month of misery” continues – actually it might be longer than a month, time no longer has meaning, well, except when it comes to statutory notices. This week we have just one determination and it deals with timeliness issues (obviously).
TiNY Report for September 10, 2020 (reporting DTA cases issued September 3)
The DTA’s “month of misery” continues with five more determinations and an order dealing with (mostly) timeliness issues. I feel like Bill Murray three-quarter’s of the way through “Groundhog Day.” But instead of “I Got You Babe” by Sonny and Cher, the radio is playing “Time after Time” by Cyndi Lauper, and the chorus lyrics have been bastardized into something like:
If you’re late and you file, you will get dismissed, timy after timy. Then TiNY will post a brief summary, timy after timy.
TiNY Report for September 3, 2020 (reporting on DTA cases issued August 24 and 27)
With apologies to Dickens: “They were the best of timies, they were the worst of timies, but most of all . . . they were timies, and I despair.” Despite having a mix of decisions, determinations, and an ALJ order, with the exception of tax-protestor case, every case this week involves a timie – so don’t blame the messenger.
Anyway, from all of us here at TiNY, we hope that everyone had a safe and socially-distant Labor Day long weekend.
TiNY Report for August 27, 2020 (reporting on cases issued by the DTA on August 20)
From Chris: Our TiNY writing staff is still having problems getting our reports out. This is almost entirely the fault of the Senior Editor (a/k/a me). TiNY occupies a low spot on my priority totem these days. And last week, I was blind-sided by the DTA when it dumped nine(!) determinations onto the website rather late in the day on Thursday. Fortunately, two were sales tax cases that I could delegate to our TiNY sales tax correspondent, Joseph Endres. But that left seven determinations for me to summarize, and those seven weren’t compelling reads. So for a while, it was “Welcome to Back Burner, NY, Pop. 7.”
As a good will gesture (and to show we care) we’ll be refunding our 12 or so readers 5% of the TiNY subscription fee they pay!
TiNY Report for August 20, 2020 (reporting on DTA cases issued August 13)
There are just two ALJ orders and a Determination this week. Even with the light output we are a few days late publishing. And this is totally the senior editor’s fault (who is writing here) as I was helping my son change his domicile from the City to Miami, FL. “The City” in this instance is Bethesda, MD. So there is no need for my friends at the Division to investigate further. But as a consequence of rendering assistance to my son, I am now compelled to quarantine in my home for the next several days. As it turns out, my quarantining is just like my non-quarantining: I spend my days in the living room with my computer and two monitors talking taxes with people on the phone.
In any event, I will try to get these out to our twelve regular readers more promptly in the future.
TiNY Report for August 13, 2020 (reporting on DTA cases issued August 6)
This week’s offerings include two decisions from the Tax Appeals Tribunal. I’m a fan of the Tribunal, and I love to see it tackle difficult issues such as the ones presented this week. One deals with the mostly factual issue of whether a petitioner was a responsible person liable for a business’s withholding taxes. The other deals with the legal issue of whether a non-US affiliate of Disney would not, for New York franchise tax purposes, be required to add back to income royalty payments it made to an affiliate. Reasonable minds may differ, and (with due respect to the Tribunal) you will see below that I surmise that both cases could have been decided differently.
TiNY Report for August 6, 2020 (reporting on DTA cases issued July 30)
The phrase “Dog Days” does not refer to those summer days when it is so hot that your dog just wants to lie around and pant all day. Instead, the dog days are those days in the year during which Sirius—aka: the “dog star”—rises before the sun in the morning. This year the dog days fall between July 22 and August 22, inclusive. Even without the knowledge of the origin of the phrase, I might have guessed we were in the dog days this week because the DTA served us up a determination and an ALJ order on cases that are real dogs, appearing to involve ill-prepared petitioners arguing mostly baseless factual issues.