S 4944: Requires medallion agents to manage payments of the congestion surcharge.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 4944 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN SENATE February 14, 2025 ___________ Introduced by Sen. COMRIE -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Investigations and Govern- ment Operations AN ACT to amend the tax law, in relation to requiring medallion agents to manage payments of the congestion surcharge The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Subdivision (a) of section 1299-b of the tax law, as 2 amended by section 3 of part R of chapter 59 of the laws of 2021, is 3 amended to read as follows: 4 (a) Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, any person 5 that dispatches a motor vehicle by any means that provides transporta- 6 tion that is subject to a surcharge imposed by this article, including 7 transportation network companies as defined in article forty-four-B of 8 the vehicle and traffic law, shall be liable for the surcharge imposed 9 by this article, except where agents licensed by the taxi and limousine 10 commission are authorized on behalf of medallion owners to manage the 11 medallions and/or make payments of the surcharge as laid out in article 12 twenty-nine-A of this chapter, such agents are solely liable for making 13 these payments absent a good faith dispute of the amount owed. Where 14 agents licensed by the taxi and limousine commission are authorized on 15 behalf of medallion owners to manage the medallions and/or make payments 16 of the metropolitan transportation authority improvement zone surcharge 17 such agents are entitled to make batch payments of all medallions 18 managed with an accounting of each medallion trip represented in the 19 batch payment, except that in the case of taxicab trips and HAIL vehicle 20 trips that are also subject to tax pursuant to article twenty-nine-A of 21 this chapter: 22 (1) [a] A TSP that collected the trip record and trip fare shall with- 23 hold from daily collections the surcharges due on such trips, and shall 24 withhold from such collections the surcharges due on cash trips. If the EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD06045-01-5 
 S. 4944 2 1 TSP's daily collections, after retaining any fees to which it is enti- 2 tled pursuant to a contract with such taxicab owner or HAIL vehicle 3 owner, are insufficient to cover the surcharges due on such cash trips, 4 the TSP shall withhold an amount from subsequent daily collections, to 5 the extent funds are available, until all surcharges due for a monthly 6 period have been withheld. If a TSP is unable to withhold all the 7 surcharges due in a monthly period, it shall withhold such unwithheld 8 surcharges from daily collections in the next monthly period. A TSP 9 shall be jointly liable for the surcharge imposed by this article for 10 all trips for which the TSP collected the trip record, but shall be 11 relieved of liability for any surcharges attributable to cash trips for 12 which it was unable to withhold the surcharges because there were insuf- 13 ficient daily collections during twelve successive monthly periods. 14 (2) The TSP shall be responsible for filing monthly returns reporting 15 the surcharges due on all trips for which it collected trip records, 16 shall remit the surcharges withheld on all such trips and shall report 17 any unwithheld surcharges due because of insufficient daily collections 18 to cover the tax due on cash trips. For purposes of this section, the 19 terms "taxicab trips," "HAIL vehicle trips," "taxicab owner," "HAIL 20 base,""TSP" and "cash trip" shall have the same meaning as they do in 21 section twelve hundred eighty of this chapter. 22 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.