Happy Birthday to Gaied

Last month we published an article in State Tax Notes about my favorite topic: our win in the 2014 Gaied case. Folks around here are a bit tired of me talking about Gaied. Heck, there’s even a video out there! But I couldn’t let Gaied’s 3^rd birthday go by without a mention. That would just be mean.

In this new article, we lament that the Tax Department doesn’t appear to be following the guidance set forth by the Court of Appeals in its decision. The case was supposed to highlight a fundamental point about statutory residency: that it was designed to ensure people who really resided in New York couldn’t escape being taxed there simply by declaring their legal residence and domicile to be elsewhere. In other words, it was designed to tax people who really live in New York.

But, alas, that hasn’t happened. In the immediate aftermath of the Gaied decision, the tax department distributed a revamped version of its Nonresident Audit Guidelines, with a new section dedicated to the impact of the case. And though the tax department’s guidelines are thorough and often helpful in resolving issues that arise during an audit, we were critical of the revised guidelines back in 2014, and that unfortunately continues today.

Given how much I enjoy writing about Gaied (like here and here and here), you can bet there will be more articles. Heck, we should at least celebrate its 5^th birthday in a couple years. But joking aside, we’re not really sure how this will all play out. More cases are likely coming, and with Gaied in the same corner as the taxpayers, we think the taxpayers stand a great chance for another big win.

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