§ 4-23 Penalties and Interest.
RCNY § 4-23
(a)Interest on underpayments. If any amount of tax is not paid on or before the last date prescribed for payment (without regard to any extension of time granted for payment), interest on such amount at the rate prescribed by the law and the regulations of the Commissioner of Finance shall be paid for the period from such last date to the date of payment. In computing the amount of the interest to be paid with respect to the taxes which remain or become due on or after July 1, 1985, such interest shall be compounded daily. No interest shall be paid if the amount thereof is less than one dollar.
(b)Civil penalties. Penalties are provided for violations of the law and of the rules and regulations of the Commissioner of Finance. These penalties are in addition to the possible suspension or revocation of the license of a wholesale or retail dealer or the authority of an agent. The following civil penalties are provided for by law (§ 11-1317 of the Administrative Code of the City of New York): (1) For failure to pay the tax under the law when due – a penalty of 50 percent of the amount of tax due. The Commissioner of Finance may, however, if satisfied that the delay was excusable, remit all or any part of such penalty.
(2)In addition to any other penalty imposed by § 11-1317 of the Administrative Code of the City of New York, as amended, the Commissioner of Finance may impose a penalty of not more than $100 for each two hundred cigarettes or fraction thereof in excess of two thousand cigarettes in unstamped or unlawfully stamped packages in the possession or under the control of any person. The Commissioner of Finance, in his discretion, may remit all or part of such penalty.
(3)The possession within the City of more than four hundred cigarettes in unstamped or unlawfully stamped packages shall be presumptive evidence that such cigarettes are subject to tax as provided by the law. Nothing in this subdivision shall apply to common or contract carriers or warehousemen while engaged in lawfully transporting or storing unstamped packages of cigarettes as merchandise, nor to any employee of such carrier or warehouseman acting within the scope of his employment, nor to public officers or employees in the performance of their official duties requiring possession or control of unstamped or unlawfully stamped packages of cigarettes, nor to temporary incidental possession by employees or agents or persons lawfully entitled to possession, nor to persons whose possession is for the purpose of aiding police officers in performing their duties.
(4)The penalties provided by this subdivision shall be paid and enforced in the same manner as taxes.
(5)Application for the remission of penalty may be made to the Commissioner of Finance. Such application must be made by the person against whom the penalty is assessed and must set forth the grounds upon which the remission is requested.
(c)Criminal penalties.
(1)Failure to obey subpoena; false testimony.
(i)Any person who, being duly subpoenaed in connection with a matter arising under the law, to attend as a witness or to produce books, accounts, records, memoranda, documents or other papers, (A) fails or refuses to attend without lawful excuse, or (B) refuses to be sworn, (C) refuses to answer any material and proper question, or (D) refuses, after reasonable notice, to produce books, papers and documents in his possession or under his control which constitute material and proper evidence shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
(ii)Any person who shall testify falsely in any material matter pending before the Commissioner of Finance shall be guilty of and punishable for perjury.
(iii)For purposes of this paragraph, the omission by any person of any material matter with intent to deceive shall constitute the delivery or disclosure of a document known by him to be fraudulent or to be false as to any material matter.
(6)Any person, other than an agent so authorized by the Commissioner of Finance, who possesses or transports for the purpose of sale any unstamped or unlawfully stamped packages of cigarettes subject to tax under the law, or who sells or offers for sale unstamped or unlawfully stamped packages of cigarettes in violation of the provisions of the law shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
(7)Any person, other than an agent so authorized by the Commissioner of Finance, who willfully possesses or transports for the purpose of sale twenty thousand or more cigarettes subject to the tax imposed by law in any unstamped or unlawfully stamped packages or who willfully sells or offers for sale twenty thousand or more cigarettes in any unstamped or unlawfully stamped packages in violation of the law shall be guilty of a Class E felony.
(8)For the purposes of this subdivision, the possession or transportation within this City by any person, other than an agent, at any one time of five thousand or more cigarettes in unstamped or unlawfully stamped packages shall be presumptive evidence that such cigarettes are possessed or transported for the purpose of sale and are subject to the tax imposed by law. With respect to such possession or transportation, any provisions of law providing for a time period during which a use tax imposed by the law may be paid on unstamped cigarettes or unlawfully or improperly stamped cigarettes or during which such cigarettes may be returned to an agent shall not apply. The possession within this City of more than four hundred cigarettes in unstamped or unlawfully stamped packages by any person other than an agent at any one time shall be presumptive evidence that such cigarettes are subject to tax as provided by law.
(9)Nothing in this subdivision shall apply to common or contract carriers or warehousemen while engaged in lawfully transporting or storing unstamped packages of cigarettes as merchandise, nor to any employee of such carrier or warehouseman acting within the scope of his employment, nor to public officers or employees in the performance of their official duties requiring possession or control of unstamped or unlawfully stamped packages of cigarettes, nor to temporary incidental possession by employees or agents of persons lawfully entitled to possession, nor to persons whose possession is for the purpose of aiding police officers in performing their duties.
(10)Any person who falsely or fraudulently makes, alters or counterfeits any stamp prescribed by the Commissioner of Finance under the law, or causes or procures to be falsely or fraudulently made, altered or counterfeited any such stamp, or knowingly and willfully utters, purchases, passes or tenders as true any such false, altered or counterfeited stamp, or knowingly and willfully possesses any cigarettes in packages bearing any such false, altered or counterfeited stamp, and any person who knowingly and willfully makes, causes to be made, purchases or receives any device for forging or counterfeiting any stamp, prescribed by the Commissioner of Finance under the provisions of the law, or who knowingly and willfully possesses any such device, shall be guilty of a Class E felony. For the purposes of this paragraph, the words "stamp prescribed by the Commissioner of Finance" shall include a stamp, impression or imprint made by a metering machine, the design of which has been approved by the Commissioner of Finance and the State Tax Commission.
(11)Any willful act or omission, other than those described in paragraphs (5) through (10) of this subdivision, by any person which constitutes a violation of any provision of law shall constitute a misdemeanor.
