Connecticut and New Jersey residents with a Hamptons summer cottage or a Manhattan pied-a-terre are about to get a nasty surprise: New York state wants more taxes from them.
A New York court ruled last month that all income earned by a New Canaan, Conn., couple is subject to New York state taxes because they own a summer home on Long Island they used only a few times a year. They have been hit with an additional tax bill of $1.06 million. [In re Barker, No. 822324 (NY Tax App. Jan. 13, 2011).] ....
For years, New York law stated that residents of another state who spend more than 183 days a year in New York have to pay taxes on any income they make in this state. But they generally haven't had to pay New York taxes on income they make outside of the state or on their spouses' income if they work elsewhere.
Under the recent ruling, this might change for many out-of-state residents who own vacation homes or apartments here. In effect, it reinterprets what counts as a permanent residence.
In defining a "permanent place of abode," New York tax code specifically excludes "a mere camp or cottage, which is suitable and used only for vacations." New York tax experts say the new ruling is the first they recall that counts summer homes as permanent residences. ....
[The judge] ruled that the couple's Long Island vacation home qualifies under the law as a permanent abode because it was suitable for living year-round--whether or not the couple actually stayed in the home wasn't relevant. Under the ruling, if an owner doesn't spend a single a day in a home it could still count toward a permanent residence.
The Napeague, Long Island, house was purchased by John and Laura Barker for $260,000 in 1997, according to court documents. From 2002 to 2004, the period that was assessed for back taxes, the Barkers said they spent only [17] days a year at the home, usually during the summer. So much for the NY vacation housing market. Watch more capital take flight from the state as people walk away or sell these homes. Makes me wonder how the small businesses that depend on the tourist money will take this?
#2
Darth, to sell these homes means that there has to be a market. How many NY residents are there in that market? Somehow I thinik supply will outstrip demand.
Posted by: Alan Cramer ||
02/11/2011 16:07 Comments ||
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#3
My grandparents used to live in Florida 7 months in order to pay Florida taxes. I bet there's millions of snowbirds that are about to get plucked.
#4
Too bad the aborigines of North America didn't think to apply this idea of taxation to every European explorer or would-be colonist who first landed on these shores. Levy a penalty tax for not having a visa, collect a user fee (all metal objects must be surrendered on touching land), 90% property tax for anyone staying overnight, 5-year quarantine of imported animals with all charges to paid by the importer, 100% tariff on imported goods, really expensive hunting & fishing licenses, etc. etc.
#8
Is the tax pro-rated according to the amount of time spent in NY or does NY want to tax all the income from whatever state it was earned in? Will CT reciprocate and tax all income earned anywhere by anyone who has any residence in CT?
#9
Pretty much every US state has plunging tax revenues, and their tax men are every bit as motivated and creative as those in NY state, for example, Texas: Will Amazon run out of states to operate from? Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) will close a distribution center in Texas and will almost certainly not have any employees in the state ever again. Texas will need to provide unemployment benefits to some of these people.
Texas presented the worlds largest e-commerce company with a tax bill for $269 million last year.
Amazon can evade this issue by limiting its operations to states which don't charge sales tax: Oregon, Montana, New Hampshire & Delaware. But those states probably charge other taxes.
I'd say 2/3 are women at the IRS. I have no evidence to back that up except when the IRS said I made six figures in 2008 and actually halving that would be more in the ballpark, every IRS person I spoke to was female. Women can be some of the fattest, pettiest bureau-bitches out there.
Posted by: Fire and Ice ||
02/11/2011 18:45 Comments ||
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#11
By the same logic wouldn't an apartment complex be a possible home so nobody from outside NY should own property you might be able to live in?
Posted by: Water Modem ||
02/11/2011 19:20 Comments ||
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#12
Anguper: What made the Texas deal intolerable was that, out of the blue, Texas demanded years of back sales taxes from Amazon, to the amount of about a quarter billion dollars. There's no way any corporation could stand for that.
#13
I'm not faulting Amazon or Texas. All those e-tailers have been skating on thin legal ice for years by not charging & remitting local sales taxes for their customers.
#14
Does this mean they get to vote in New York? No taxation without representation ya know.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/11/2011 20:24 Comments ||
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#15
"All those e-tailers have been skating on thin legal ice for years by not charging & remitting local sales taxes for their customers."
They collect and remit them to the states where they have a physical location, AH.
We have a couple of websites where we sell things we make. I record, collect, and remit sales taxes from customers in my state, just as I do at craft fairs I attend. If I had to collect and remit sales taxes to the other 56 49 states too, I'd give up the websites. The extra work wouldn't be worth it. I suspect the same is true of other small e-retailers.
So the states still wouldn't get the money and the states' citizens would be deprived the chance to buy hand-crafted items at reasonable prices (which I think is the ultimate goal of these clowns).
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/11/2011 20:35 Comments ||
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#16
Interstate commerce is the sole venue of the federal government. It could authorize the levying of such a tax, but I suspect that it, the federal government, would hose most of the proceeds rather than equitably share with the states.
#17
I suspect the bloodsuckerers of NY Tax boards have NO idea what the end result will be. Widespread sales of corporate apartments, second homes, condos at loss will drive down property values and tax revenue. Suck it, bitches. You just upended a workable social/living situation to squeeze some more $ and now you lose. Mass firings should be in order, starting with the judge that made this ruling
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/11/2011 20:51 Comments ||
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#18
Time to sell the vacation home and "Escape from New York." New York's not going to get any better until all the taxpayers move out.
#19
So if I miss my flight and sleep overnight in the airport terminal, does that make me a NY resident?
Posted by: James ||
02/11/2011 22:39 Comments ||
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#20
I'd like to see if this ruling applies to foreign nationals. Imagine if NY state revenue people start heading out to China to audit Chinese owners of NY apartments.
Oprah called on President Obama's critics on Friday to show some level of respect. Respect has to be earned. It is not given. And lets not ignore all the 'respect' the left has given to George Bush over the years he was president.
"I feel that everybody has a learning curve, and I feel that the reason why I was willing to step out for him was because I believed in his integrity and I believed in his heart," the influential TV host said on MSNBCs Morning Joe in Chicago. And, admit it, because he was the first black candidate.
Of the negative mood of the country, Oprah added, I think everybody complaining ought to try it for once. If this is Obama's learning curve - then I think I know why his college records are hidden - he's an extremely slow learner.
She said the presidency is a position that holds a sense of authority and governance over us all, and that even if youre not in support of his policies, there needs to be a certain level of respect." I respect the office, I even respect some of the office holders - even when I don't always agree with them. I do not respect the current office holder. He's a slow learner, incompetent, still has zero experience and is incapable of learning from them anyway.
Fat black chicks who like her because she was fat before, Barack Obama and liberal housewives with time to read silly magazines. They make up a large portion of our populus, it turns out. :-(
Posted by: Fire and Ice ||
02/11/2011 15:47 Comments ||
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#4
What is that called when a person is forced to give respect...come on Operah halp me out you are better at words than I am.
I had given the benefit that the administration was doing well in the, uhem, hidden arenas and there had been some evidence of that. But I guess the whole thing is a clown show. Commands no respect, gives no respect.
So Operah, respectfully piss off and go fix that oxygen channel you started.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/11/2011 18:20 Comments ||
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#8
The website smirkingchimp.com is still in business & still dedicated to ridiculing W. full time. There is no website like smokingchimp.com dedicated to ridiculing Obama, and that's all the respect Zero deserves.
#11
I can't give you a pony, Barbara, but I can give you a Donkey.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/11/2011 20:28 Comments ||
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#12
Thanks, Deacon, but I don't need a Democrat donkey.
There are far too many already.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/11/2011 20:38 Comments ||
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#13
This is no different than when Oprah demanded that people respect President Bush during the Bushitler/Command in Chimp/McHitlerBurton years. Of course, I may be confusing Oprah and Bizarro Oprah. It is getting harder and harder to distinguish between Bizarro World and this one.
#14
I think 3/4 of the actions W. took I had at least a slight disagreement with. He was as open and honest as possible even if 3/4 of the people though he should go sleep in a can, depending on the issue. Not stories, what has W. been caught doing which would not deserve respect? Now watch this swing, flipping the bird to a camera test? Speaking in a non-ivy lawyer accent? I never laughed so hard at the impersonator bit over 'nuclear'.
Obama acts like a 16 year old driving a sports car he didn't earn. Always finds a vacation when the going gets tough, slandered a police department and its profession because and academic buddy called in a favor after acting like a d!k, tasteless jokes on late night, appearing on any daytime women issue show, sales pitching dude on cynical news show, can't get off script, bows to foreign leaders, let me eat my waffles joe the plumber tea party who acting teleprompter ping pong parody of a parody.
Mile wide and an inch deep. He should be proud of his background, not the only non-traditional American family, but what embarassed about it around the US Royalty Families, can't respect that. Spent their life hating but no problem working the system of the country he is in charge of, excuse my skepticism.
The top brass at the Pentagon is signaling in no uncertain terms that the defense industry needs to clean up its act and accept that the government can no longer throw away money on ill-conceived military projects.
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz on Wednesday had some tough talk for defense contractors, saying firms must stop "blowing smoke" and over-promising about what they can deliver.
"Don't blow smoke up my ass" about what a military platform can do and when it will be ready, Schwartz told a tense and silent ballroom filled with defense industry executives. "There's no time for it. There's no patience for it. OK?"
The comments were the latest example of Pentagon officials speaking bluntly about the future of the U.S. defense sector, which they say must change rapidly to accommodate the nation's new fiscal reality.
"If industry makes a commitment, you will have to deliver," Schwartz said. "There will be less tolerance ... for not delivering."
Officials say the future of the defense sector will be considerably different from the flush days after 9/11, when companies were handed what amounted to a blank check as the country fought two wars and took on terrorism.
Now, budgets are shrinking in Washington, and this time even the military isn't immune. There is general agreement among Democrats and Republicans that defense cuts must be "on the table" as the country looks to pare back the spiraling deficit, though differences remain over how large those reductions should be.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has already announced that the service will reduce its spending by $78 billion over the next five years, and the service's austerity drive is likely to accelerate in the years ahead.
Schwartz, who is rumored to be on the short list for the next Joint Chiefs chairman, said the budget crunch means the Pentagon will have "no patience" for exaggerated weapons-sales pitches.
"Cost-control will be an issue in everything we do," from weapon programs to healthcare, the air chief said.
Contractors often focus their bids for Pentagon work on platforms and subsystems that cannot realistically be developed, tested and delivered on the proposed budget and schedule. The results typically are program delays and cost overruns that force the military to buy fewer models or cancel programs altogether. Now, speaking as a contractor for the DoD, there is a lot of things that could be scaled back and areas cut. However, the politicians and the military are just as much to blame. Nothing like having a proposal get feature creep and every General, Colonel and Major throwing in their needs and bloating the thing to the point of uselessness. Also, the there are lots and lots of little programs that are the protected "turf" of several units and they swear the US will be left naked and defenseless against our enemies without their Windows 2000 server that no one has the budget to upgrade and is now pretty much useless.
There is lots of blame for bloated budgets to go around and you could cut billions and keep 97% of our capabilities by doing the following:
Streamline the process. Too much red tape and regulations. When an entire department of a contractor company of 30 people is spent trying to follow all the rules and regulations you know things are fucked.
Streamline systems. Cut the old shit, build the new shit with off the shelf systems that could be put in place in half the time and 10% of the cost. There is a push for doing this, but it takes forever to get software and systems approved and everyone wants their own little tweak added to it.
No more fiefdoms. That Lt. Col that whines about his Windows 2000 servers that can track one feature of the enemy? Don't need it. Guarantee it has been replaced and is traced by at least two other databases. Kill these obsolete systems.
The above will free up billions and bring systems to the battlefield quicker. Believe me, there is lots and lots more, but that is a good start.
#1
I have another one (maybe this rub some people the wrong way). How about doing away with paying retired Generals a couple hundred K a yr for becoming "mentors" - whatever the f*ck that means. From what I've seen they go around and tell war stories and sit in on planning conferences. Hey, if the active duty General needs a retired "mentor" to help him w/the JOPP I think we're sorta screwed.
#3
For Congress. These generals are bureaucrats in uniform, not warriors. The contractors are their co-conspirators. Even Ike could see that 50 years ago. They can sense that the party is just about over and the tune is changing. They are trying to get ahead of the curve and appear to have been tea partiers for ever. They're a target rich environment.
Which will be unlikely as long as Congresscritters keep inserting special interest group set asides and racial preference requirements and reporting, for example, upon pure business transactions.
Congresscritters protect their own as the next generation air refuel tanker contract demonstrates. Don't win, whine and complain to force the military to adopt two systems [and double the maintenance and spare parts sustainment].
#5
However, the politicians and the military are just as much to blame
Wrong! They are much more to blame. I've worked as a contractor in a couple of very different industries. The IT stint included some military work. Everything said here about fiefdoms and scope creep (more like gallop) are more than true. I've never seen a contractor yet (or any other kind of purveyor) that wasn't under the control of the customer. The contractors can't start the process, they can just milk it.
Posted by: Alan Cramer ||
02/11/2011 8:46 Comments ||
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#6
True Alan, but I have seen contractors milk it very deliberately.
The thing that fries me every time is when I, the engineer, want to make a change it has to go through literally 20 layers of company, government and civilian investigation before the damn thing is even considered to be approved to go forward. One small tweak, like using a newer version of software or changing the the layout a little takes me two weeks of FULL TIME running around just doing all the bullshit bureaucracy. The company charges the government $100/h for my work (believe me, I don't see nearly that much) and two weeks of going through meetings, change requests, meeting majors, civilian overseers, middle managers, etc. costs the government $8,000 just to start thinking about the approval of a simple, $180 fix.
#8
Milk it deliberately, Darth? Not only deliberately but with malice aforethought. That's why they make sure that the hose for all that milk has a couple of "leaks" to keep the pols and brass well sated.
The contractors no more want the inter-agency squabbling and fiefdoms to be stopped than the people in control of the fiefs. That's why Ike labeled it a "complex".
Unfortunately rather than figuring out how to stop it, we've created more and more with every expansion of the Gov't. Areas such as Agriculture, environment and welfare, to name a few, suffer all the same.
Posted by: Alan Cramer ||
02/11/2011 9:46 Comments ||
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#9
Alan Cramer,
The milking comes after several tries at doing the job more efficiently and cheaply; and getting threatened with fines/jail for doing so.
"You want me to waste your money? Here ya go!"
When I was working on the Apache helicopter, we had to generate a DD220 report for each helicopter (but there was no guidence on what the report should look like). We contacted DOD to ask what they used it for. They said they never looked at it - just checked to see if it was there. Then they filed it away and sent it to Iron Mountain. Failure to deliver was punishably by large fines. So we gave them an unreadable report and said to hell with them.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
02/11/2011 13:24 Comments ||
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#10
Want a program to cancel? Try the 2.75in air to ground rocket. It is obsolete, and we have a 30 year supply at current usage rates. The military has been trying to end production for decades. However, the manufacturer is a major contributor to Sen. Leahy (D-VT). Every year DOD removes funding for new production of this weapon and every year (the very liberal) Sen. Leahy puts it back.
The Dems view the DOD budget as pure pork. They don't care whether the system works or not.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
02/11/2011 13:26 Comments ||
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#11
Adapted COTS is the way to go for initial fielding in a hurry.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Connecticut and New Jersey residents with a Hamptons summer cottage or a Manhattan pied-a-terre are about to get a nasty surprise: New York state wants more taxes from them.
The top brass at the Pentagon is signaling in no uncertain terms that the defense industry needs to clean up its act and accept that the government can no longer throw away money on ill-conceived military projects.
