(Derived from Ch. 125 of the 1975 Compilation)
Pursuant to the authority granted by § 20-b
of the General City Law of the State of New York, an annual tax equal
to 1% of its gross income for the twelve-month period beginning on
July 1, 1963, and ending June 30, 1964, and continuing thereafter
for each succeeding year, and ending on June 30 of the following year,
is hereby imposed upon every utility doing business in the City of
Oneonta, which is subject to the supervision of the Department of
Public Service, State of New York, which has a gross income for the
12 months ending May 31, of each year, in excess of $500, except motor
carriers or brokers subject to such supervision under Article 3-b
of the Public Service Law, and a tax equal to 1% of its gross operating
income is hereby imposed for the same period upon every other utility
doing business in the City of Oneonta, which has a gross operating
income for the 12 months ending May 31, of each year, in excess of
$500, which taxes shall have application only within the territorial
limits of the City of Oneonta, and shall be in addition to any and
all other taxes and fees imposed by any other provision of law for
the same period. Such taxes shall not be imposed on any transaction
originating or consumated outside of the territorial limits of the
City of Oneonta, notwithstanding that such act be necessarily performed
with respect to such transaction within such limits.
As used in this article, the following terms
shall have the meanings indicated:
Includes receipts received in or by reason of any sale, conditional
or otherwise (except sales hereinafter referred to with respect to
which it is provided that profits from the sale shall be included
in gross income), made or service rendered for ultimate consumption
or use by the purchaser in this city, including cash, credits and
property of any kind or nature (whether or not such sale is made or
such service is rendered for profit), without any deduction therefrom
on account of the cost of the property sold, the cost of materials
used, labor or services or other costs, interest or discount paid,
or any other expense whatsoever; also profits from the sale of securities;
also profits from the sale of real property growing out of the ownership
or use of or interest in such property; also profit from the sale
of personal property (other than property of a kind which would properly
be included in the inventory of the taxpayer if on hand at the close
of the period for which a return is made); also receipts from interest,
dividends and royalties, derived from sources within this city other
than such as are received from a corporation a majority of whose voting
stock is owned by the taxpaying utility, without any deduction therefrom
for any expenses whatsoever incurred in connection with the receipt
thereof, also profits from any transaction (except sales for resale
and rentals) within this city whatsoever.
Includes receipts received in or by reason of any sale, conditional
or otherwise, made for ultimate consumption or use by the purchaser
of gas, electricity, steam, water, refrigeration, telephony or telegraphy,
or in or by reason of the furnishing for such consumption or use of
gas, electric, steam, water, refrigerator, telephone or telegraph
service in this city, including cash, credits and property of any
kind or nature, without any deduction therefrom on account of the
cost of the property sold, the cost of materials used, labor or services
or other costs, interest or discount paid, or any other expenses whatsoever.
Persons, corporations, companies, associations, joint-stock
associations, copartnerships, estates, assignees of rents, any person
acting in a fiduciary capacity or any other entity, and persons, their
assignees, lessees, trustees or receivers, appointed by any court
whatsoever, or by any other means, except the state, municipalities,
political and civil subdivisions of the state or municipality, public
districts and corporations and associations organized and operated
exclusively for religious, charitable or educational purposes, no
part of the net earnings of which inures to the benefit of any private
shareholder or individual, and excepting a corporation organized and
operated exclusively for the purpose of leasing from a city in this
state a waterworks system designed to supply water at cost to users
thereof for discharge, either before or after industrial use, into
a river within such city in order to improve the flow and condition
of such river and thereby to provide a means to relieve such river
from pollution.
Includes every person subject to the supervision of the State
Department of Public Service except persons engaged in the business
of operating on the public highways of this state one or more omnibuses,
having a seating capacity of more than seven persons, and persons
engaged in the business of operating or leasing sleeping and parlor
railroad cars or of operating railroads other than street surface,
rapid transit, subway and elevated railroads, and also includes every
person (whether or not such person is subject to such supervision)
who sells gas, electricity, steam, water, refrigeration, telephony
or telegraphy delivered through mains, pipes or wires, or furnishes
gas, electric, steam, water, refrigerator, telephone or telegraph
service, by means of mains, pipes or wires; regardless of whether
such activities are the main business of such person or are only incidental
thereto, or of whether use is made of the public streets.
Every utility subject to tax under this article
shall keep such records of its business and in such form as the City
Chamberlain may require, and such records shall be preserved for a
period of three years, except that the City Chamberlain may consent
to their destruction within that period or may require that they be
kept longer.
Every utility subject to tax hereunder shall
file, on or before September 25, December 25, March 25 and June 25
of each year, a return for the three calendar months preceding each
such return date, including any period for which the tax imposed hereby
or by any amendment hereof is effective, each of which returns shall
state the gross income or gross operating income for the period covered
by each such return. Returns shall be filed with the City Chamberlain
on a form to be furnished by him for such purpose and shall contain
such other data, information or matter as the City Chamberlain may
require to be included therein. Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions
of this section, any utility whose average gross income or average
gross operating income, as the case may be, for the aforesaid three-month
periods is less than $1,500 may file a return annually on June 25
for the 12 preceding calendar months, and the City Chamberlain may
require any utility to file an annual return, which shall contain
any data specified by him, regardless of whether the utility is subject
to tax under this article. Every return shall have annexed thereto
a certification by the head of the utility making the same, or of
the owner or of a copartner thereof, or of a principal officer of
the corporation, if such business be conducted by a corporation, to
the effect that the statements contained therein are true.
At the time of the filing of a return as required
by this article, each utility shall pay to the City Chamberlain the
tax imposed by this article for the period covered by such return.
Such tax shall be due and payable at the time of filing the return,
or if a return is not filed when due, on the last day on which the
return is required to be filed.
In case any return filed pursuant to this article
shall be insufficient or unsatisfactory to the City Chamberlain, and
if a corrected or sufficient return is not filed within 20 days after
the same is required by notice from him, or if no return is made for
any period, the City Chamberlain shall determine the amount of tax
due from such information as he is able to obtain and, if necessary,
may estimate the tax on the basis of external indices or otherwise.
He shall give notice of such determination to the person liable for
such tax. Such determination shall finally and irrevocably fix such
tax, unless the person against whom it is assessed shall, within 30
days after the giving of notice of such determination, apply to the
City Chamberlain for a hearing, or unless the City Chamberlain of
his own motion shall reduce the same. After such hearing, the City
Chamberlain shall give notice of his decision to the person liable
for the tax. Such decision may be reviewed by a proceeding under Article
78 of the Civil Practice Law and Rules of the State of New York if
application therefor is made within 30 days after the giving of notice
of such decision. An order to review such decision shall not be granted
unless the amount of any tax sought to be reviewed, with interest
and penalties thereon, if any, shall be first deposited with the City
Chamberlain and an undertaking filed with him in such amount and with
such sureties as a Justice of the Supreme Court shall approve, to
the effect that, if such proceeding be dismissed or the tax confirmed,
the applicant will pay all costs and charges which may accrue in the
prosecution of such proceeding, or at the option of the applicant,
such undertaking may be in a sum sufficient to cover the tax, interest,
penalties, costs and charges aforesaid, in which event the applicant
shall not be required to pay such tax, interest and penalties as a
condition precedent to the granting of such order. Except in the case
of willfully false or fraudulent return with intent to evade the tax,
no assessment of additional tax shall be made after the expiration
of more than three years from the date of the filing of a return;
provided, however, that where no return has been filed as required
by this article the tax may be assessed at any time.
Any notice authorized or required under the
provisions of this article may be given by mailing the same to the
person for whom it is intended, in a postpaid envelope, addressed
to such person at the address given by him in the last return filed
by him under this article, or if no return has been filed, then to
such address as may be obtainable. The mailing of such notice shall
be presumptive evidence of the receipt of the same by the person to
whom addressed. Any period of time which is determined according to
the provisions of this article by the giving of notice shall commence
to run from the date of mailing of such notice.
Any person failing to file a return or corrected
return, or to pay any tax or any portion thereof, within the time
required by this article shall be subject to a penalty of 5% of the
amount of tax due, plus 1% of such tax for each month of delay or
fraction thereof, excepting the first month, after such return was
required to be filed or such tax became due, but the City Chamberlain,
for cause shown, may extend the time for for filing any return and,
if satisfied that the delay was excusable, may remit all or any portion
of the penalty fixed by the foregoing provisions of this article.
If, within one year from the payment of any
tax or penalty, the payer thereof shall make application for a refund
thereof and the City Chamberlain or the court shall determine that
such tax or penalty or any portion thereof was erroneously or illegally
collected, the City Chamberlain shall refund the amount so determined.
For like cause and within the same period, a refund may be so made
on the initiative of the City Chamberlain. However, no refund shall
be made of a tax or penalty paid pursuant to a determination of the
City Chamberlain as hereinbefore provided, unless the City Chamberlain,
after a hearing as hereinbefore provided or of his own motion shall
have reduced the tax or penalty or if it shall have been established
in a proceeding under Article 78 of the Civil Practice Law and Rules
of the State of New York that such determination was erroneous or
illegal. All refunds shall be made out of moneys collected under this
article, deposited to the credit of the City Chamberlain with the
approval of the City Chamberlain. An application for a refund, made
as hereinbefore provided, shall be deemed an application for the revision
of any tax or penalty complained of, and the City Chamberlain may
receive additional evidence with respect thereto. After making its
determination, the City Chamberlain shall give notice thereof to the
person interested, and he shall be entitled to commence a proceeding
to review such determination, subject to the provisions hereinbefore
contained relating to the commencement of such a proceeding.
The tax imposed by this article shall be charged
against and be paid by the utility and shall not be added as a separate
item to bills rendered by the utility to customers or others but shall
constitute a part of the operating costs of such utility.
Whenever any person shall fail to pay any tax
or penalty imposed by this article, the City Attorney shall, upon
the request of the City Chamberlain, bring an action to enforce payment
of the same. The proceeds of any judgment obtained in any such action
shall be paid to the City Chamberlain. Each such tax and penalty shall
be a lien upon the property of the person liable to pay the same,
in the same manner and to the same extent that the tax and penalty
imposed by § 186-a of the Tax Law is made a lien.
In the administration of this article, the City
Chamberlain shall have power to make such reasonable rules and regulations,
not inconsistent with law, as may be necessary to the exercise of
his powers and the performance of his duties and to prescribe the
form of blanks, reports and other records relating to the administration
and enforcement of the tax, to take testimony and proofs, under oath,
with reference to any matter within the line of his official duty
under this article and to subpoena and require the attendance of witnesses
and the production of books, papers and documents.
Except in accordance with proper judicial order
or as otherwise provided by law, it shall be unlawful for the City
Chamberlain, or any agent, clerk or employee of the City of Oneonta,
New York, to divulge or make known in any manner the amount of gross
income or gross operating income, or any particulars set forth or
disclosed in any return under this article. The officer charged with
the custody of such returns shall not be required to produce any of
them or evidence of anything contained in them in any action or proceeding
in any court, except on behalf of the City of Oneonta, New York, in
an action or proceeding under the provisions of this article, or on
behalf of the State Tax Commission in an action or proceeding under
the provisions of the Tax Law of the State of New York, or on behalf
of any party to any action or proceeding under the provisions of this
article when the returns or facts shown thereby are directly involved
in such action or proceeding; in either of which events the court
may require the production of and may admit in evidence so much of
said returns or of the facts shown thereby as are pertinent to the
action or proceeding and no more. Nothing herein shall be construed
to prohibit the delivery to a person, or his duly authorized representative,
of a copy of any return filed by him, nor to prohibit the publication
of statistics so classified as to prevent the identification of particular
returns and the items thereof, or the publication of delinquent lists
showing the names of persons who have failed to pay their taxes at
the time and in the manner provided for by this article, together
with any relevant information which, in the opinion of the City Chamberlain,
may assist in the collection of such delinquent taxes; or the inspection
by the City Attorney or other legal representative of the City of
Oneonta, New York of the return of any person who shall bring action
to set aside or review the tax based thereon, or against whom an action
has been instituted in accordance with the provisions of this article.
Any offense against the foregoing secrecy provisions shall be punishable
by a fine not exceeding $1,000 or by imprisonment not exceeding one
year or both, and if the offender be an officer, agent, clerk or employee
of the City of Oneonta, New York, he shall be dismissed from office
and shall be incapable of holding any office or employment for the
City of Oneonta, New York for a period of five years thereafter. Notwithstanding
any provisions of this article, the City Chamberlain may exchange
with the chief fiscal officer of any city or any village of the State
of New York information contained in returns filed under this article,
provided such city or village grants similar privileges to the City
of Oneonta, New York and provided such information is to be used for
tax purposes only, and the City Chamberlain shall, upon request, furnish
the State Tax Commission with any information contained in such returns.
All taxes and penalties received by the City
Chamberlain under this article shall be paid into the treasury of
the City of Oneonta, New York and shall be credited to and deposited
in the general fund of the city.
