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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Emma M. Savino
Showing 45 posts by Emma M. Savino.
TiNY Report for July 30, 2020 (reporting on DTA cases issued July 23)
The output this week from the DTA is a bit lackluster – just two determinations, and both of them are timies.
I’m writing solo this week from the Great White North (aka Canada), and my computer keeps trying to auto-correct “timies” to “Timmies.” Our readers who haven’t enjoyed the pleasure of its semi-massed produced donuts (a far cry from the delicious fried-dough confections lovingly produced at Paula’s) and coffee, may be unaware that the donut shop chain “Tim Hortons” is “Timmies” in the local vernacular. I am not a huge fan, although I find the coffee in the Canadian Timmies palatable—likely because of the cream’s higher fat content.
I’m currently in the birth place of Timmies, and one can’t go more than a few blocks without being in front of another Tim Hortons. If I wasn’t in quarantine, I could walk to one of the five(!) Timmies within a one-mile radius of my temporary home office. So, I’m wondering if my computer’s GPS knows when I’ve come to Canada and somehow adjusts the autocorrect lexicon and preferences to reflect the change of venue. If so . . . I’m totally impressed with the technology!
Anyway, now that you know that I wrestle with my computer every time I try to spell the word “timies,” here are two run-of-the-mill timies.
Comment
TiNY Report for July 16, 2020 (reporting on DTA cases issued July 2 and July 9)
Mea culpa, baby! Yes, your senior editor, who was in charge last week, neglected to post a summary of the solitary timy ALJ Order that hit the DTA’s website last week. There were many, many priorities in front of TiNY last week. And many, many phone calls from CPAs wondering just how one is supposed to apply New York’s “de-coupling” from the CARES Act in practice. Not an excuse . . . an explanation. We stand behind the timeliness of our publication. So feel free to contact the senior editor (at tiny@hodgsonruss.com) to request a ratable refund of the subscription fee you pay. He has agreed to pay these out of his own pocket!
There are two decisions, four determinations, and last week’s order to report on this week. I was hoping to report that the Tribunal had continued down a path away from the “only reasonable construction standard,” but . . . no.
TiNY Report for July 2, 2020 (reporting on DTA cases issued June 25)
Pretty small output from the DTA this week, but maybe that’s just the DTA’s present to us (well, me) before a long weekend.
From all your authors at TiNY, we hope everyone has a safe and socially distant Fourth of July Weekend!
TiNY Report for June 18, 2020 (reporting on DTA cases issued June 8)
Below are Emma’s reports on a Tribunal decision and a very rare Tribunal order. The last time we saw a Tribunal order was in 2018.
But before we get into all that, let me tell a true story about my trip back to the office on Friday. My visit to the office was necessary because I needed to get out a document with a “wet” signature. While I was there, I looked through the hard-copy mail that had been previously scanned and emailed to me. I do this from time to time to make sure that no time sensitive documents have missed my consideration. One of the documents was a Notice and Demand for $500,000 issued to one of our residency clients. It should not have been issued because the client (through Hodgson Russ) filed a timely request for conciliation conference. And once we drew the Department’s attention to the error, the Notice was promptly and courteously rescinded. The point of this story is not that a Notice had been issued in error, or that it had been rescinded, but that the Department sent an insert with the Notice requesting that my nonresident client sign up at http://donatelife.ny.gov/register to be a New York organ donor.
There’s nothing wrong with being an organ donor. I am registered with New York as an organ donor. And if you are reading this and live in New York, I encourage you to register as a donor too (just go to the link in the last paragraph). But it seems a little over the top for New York to ask a person who moved (or even just claimed to have moved) out of the State for a literal “pound of flesh” in addition to resident taxes and interest. It used to be that penalties were rare. Now penalties are the norm and the State wants your kidneys too!
TiNY Report for June 11, 2020 (reporting on DTA cases issued June 3 and 4)
Four determinations and three ALJ Orders this week. That’s a pretty big haul. But the cases were yawners from a substantive legal perspective. Timies galore!
TiNY Report for May 15, 2020 (reporting on DTA cases issued May 7)
After going “oh-for-April,” the DTA seems to be easing back into the swing of things by posting three Decisions last week and then two ALJ Orders this week. And thank goodness. We have been busy on client matters, but those don’t really invite inventive prose. TiNY, on the other hand, lets us write creatively and be opinionated, and that is a welcome diversion.
One of this week’s DTA postings is a mundane timy. But when your last meal was more than a month ago, even a couple of stale crackers looks like a feast!
TiNY Report for April 2, 2020 (reporting on DTA case issued March 26)
I don’t know about you, but days of the week have ceased to have meaning to me. I don’t drive to and from the office Monday to Friday and then spend my weekends on the couch catching up on work that I didn’t get to during the work week. Now each day just kind of blurs into the next – and now I know that I’m not alone in this feeling, the DTA is right there with me. DTA isn’t following its routine of posting cases only on Thursday, so this can only mean one thing, the days of the week don’t matter to the DTA either. Needless to say, we’ll just keep updating the TiNY Report every time something gets posted, like today – just don’t ask me what day of the week it is.
TiNY Report for March 26, 2020 (reporting on DTA cases issued March 16 and 17)
Are you good?
Our entire TiNY writing staff (all three of us) claims to be healthy. But since we are all practicing from off-site locations this week, I cannot confirm that information. And TiNY’s lawyers (same three people) have said that confirming health information and then publishing it here is probably a HIPAA violation anyway (damned lawyers). I can confirm that I am asymptomatic, but I have put on a few pounds as a result of my new compulsory lifestyle which has morphed from a work/life balance to a work/life merger. There are upsides, of course. My 30-minute commute is now a 30-second commute. And I (finally) have a corner office worthy of the Editor-in-Chief of the TiNY Report.
I’m as busy as I’ve ever been, doing client work, tracking COVID-19 state tax developments, and getting alerts out to our clients and other interested parties. On that issue, I know they’ve got to be busy with other stuff, but, as of this writing, the Department of Taxation and Finance has not posted anything official on its website to the effect that income tax filing and payment deadlines are extended to July 15. The Director of Budget and the Governor have stated in separate press conferences that the deadline will be (or has been) extended. The Director of Budget’s statement appeared to be predicated on the assumption that state deadlines were dependent on federal deadlines, which is not the case: New York has deadlines that are distinct from the federal deadlines. And there was an email received last night by many accountants from Governor Cuomo stating “New York State's income tax filing deadline is delayed until July 15, 2020. Because New York State requires electronic filing, the date for filing state personal income taxes automatically travels with the federal filing date, which is now July 15. Further guidelines will be released soon.” I’m not sure how electronic filing controls legal filing deadlines, but I think that the that the Department of Taxation and Finance and the IRS share the same electronic filing processing platform, so it may be practical and not legal factors that are driving these statements. And the Governor’s statement, which is the most authoritative statement out there as of now, doesn’t say anything about Q1 estimated tax payments. So, until I see official guidance from the Tax Department, I’m planning on filing my New York return and paying my New York Q1 estimate on April 15. Y’all can do what you want.
There are one Decision, three Determinations and three ALJ Orders this week. Under the circumstances, this may be all we get for a while. Until next time, I hope you’ll heed Duke’s advice to his successor as Governor of American Samoa: “Be firm, fly low and stay cool” (GB Trudeau, “Doonesbury” January 10, 1976).
Chris
TiNY Report for March 19, 2020 (reporting on DTA cases issued March 12)
To our twelve or so regular readers:
We hope this finds you healthy and safe.
As best as we can ascertain [sound of us knocking on a wooden desk] our SALT team is in good shape and being productive, most from the safety of their homes. We have SALT lawyers in our Buffalo, New York City, Albany, and Palm Beach Offices. Twelve of our SALT lawyers are Buffalo-based. This week, four of us have been coming into the office because: (1) we felt we’d be much more productive here than at home, (2) our skeletal staff needs someone to talk to when questions arise, (3) we need someone to track any notices that arrive by regular mail, and (4) there’s office supplies, IT equipment and, of course, toilet paper here that need protection. The quiet is surreal. Those of us in the office hope/think our risk of contracting/spreading the virus is minimal since our floor is pretty much devoid of other humans. But although we’re smart about taxes, epidemiology is not in our wheelhouse – so we’ll see.
TiNY Report for February 20, 2020 (covering DTA cases issued February 13)
This we week have ten (?!) orders. There are really only two issues in the ten orders, so I’ve condensed the summaries down to two: one covering two of the orders and the other covering the other eight orders. I would never ask our valued readers (all twelve or so of you) to suffer through eight of the exact same summaries.