TiNY Report for March 25, 2021 (reporting on DTA cases issued March 11 and 18)

Greetings constant reader. The TiNY editorial staff is healthy, in the course of being vaccinated, and looking forward to things loosening up so we can actually appear before the DTA in the near future. Well . . . at least two of us are. I am actually wondering how a Judge will react to my request for an adjournment based on my inability to fit into any of my suits. Is that reasonable cause? I sure as heck hope so. Because I sure as heck have that problem right now.

TMI? There is no such thing at TiNY.

This week we have eight determinations on which to report.

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TiNY Report for March 19, 2021 (reporting on DTA cases issued since February 28)

In this edition, we recall the Bard’s Julius Caesar because, you know, the whole “ides of March” thing. And so: “Friends! New Yorkers! Twelve (or so) loyal readers! Lend me your eyes.”

In Shakespeare’s play, the Soothsayer warns Caesar: “Beware the ides of March.” TiNY would have instead cautioned petitioners: “Beware the first of March” –  because in the four Tribunal Decisions issued on March 1, no petitioner was victorious. But, consistent with Marc Antony’s sarcastic eulogy of Caesar: Joe Endres, Emma Savino, and I write to report the decisions, not to praise them. And yet TiNY is an honorable institution (or so we’d like to think).

Et tu, IBM?  Yup. On March 5, the Tribunal issued another Decision and another taxpayer defeat. An ALJ Order rounds out our presentation.

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TiNY Report for January 28, 2021 (reporting on DTA cases issued January 21)

I am trying to get TiNY back into the groove of publishing within days (instead of weeks) of the issuance of cases by the DTA. There were three Determinations and one ALJ Order posted to the DTA’s site last Thursday. PLUS, we have seen at least two Tribunal Decisions that, at least as of this writing, haven’t been posted yet, but should be soon. So we summarize those decisions too.

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TiNY Report for January 22 (reporting on DTA cases issued December 10, 16, 23 and 30 and January 7 and 14)

Happy New Year, constant readers. We had a special edition a few weeks ago, and then we were distracted by other developments. But now we are back to our regular menu consisting of (mostly) timies . . . Oliver Twist’s diet was more fulfilling. So we have several weeks’ worth of cases, including fourteen determinations and a few orders. And this week I am trying something new. I am going to offer our summaries by prioritizing the more interesting cases. Fortunately, one of the orders is pretty interesting (in the “They argued what!?” sense), so it gets the first slot.

But first, a little “inside baseball”: Normally the ALJ’s issue their determinations and orders on Thursdays. We have been told that this practice allows taxpayers some extra time to file exceptions. Exceptions are due within 30 days of the determinations. The day an exception is due for a determination issued on a Thursday is the fifth Saturday following the issuance of the determination. But when a filing due date falls on a Saturday or Sunday, the law extends the time to file to the next business day (normally the next Monday). So issuing determinations on Thursdays gives petitioners and the Division a couple of extra days to file their exceptions. The December 16, 23 and 30 determinations and orders were issued on Wednesdays, so the parties will need to be extra-careful about adhering to the 30-day deadlines falling in January.

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TiNY Report for December 10, 2020 (reporting on DTA cases issued December 3)

‘Tis the season for giving, and the DTA was in the giving mood last week, lavishing us with eight determinations (one for each day of Hanukkah) and two orders (one for each Buffalo Bills win in December—so far.)

In this installment, Joe Endres tries his hand at the art of the obscure pop culture reference. And we’re taking two new authors, Katie Piazza and Tyler Gately, for test drives. Enjoy!

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TiNY Report for December 10, 2020 (covering DTA cases issued December 3)

‘Tis the season for giving, and the DTA was in the giving mood last week, lavishing us with eight determinations (one for each day of Hanukkah) and two orders (one for each Buffalo Bills win in December—so far). 

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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).

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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.

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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.

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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.

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