171-T - Reciprocal offset agreements with the United States or other states.
§ 171-t. Reciprocal offset agreements with the United States or other states. (1) For the purposes of this section, the definitions provided for in section one hundred seventy-one-n of this article apply together with the following: (a) "Claimant" means any state or the United States that enters into a reciprocal agreement under this section or requests application of a vendor payment or an overpayment to a debt. (b) "Debt" means (i), for purposes of state debt, a "tax debt" as defined in section one hundred seventy-one-n of this article and any other past due legally enforceable obligation owed to a state, which arises from (A) an enforceable judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction that is no longer subject to judicial review, or (B) an enforceable determination of an administrative body that is no longer subject to administrative or judicial review, or (C) a determination that has become final or finally and irrevocably fixed and no longer subject to administrative or judicial review; or (ii), for purposes of federal debt, debt means any amount of money, funds or property that has been determined by an appropriate official of the federal government to be owed to the United States by a person, organization, or entity, except another federal agency, to the extent such amount is eligible for offset under federal law. The term includes debt administered by a third party acting as an agent for the federal government. (c) "Debtor" means a person who owes a debt. (d) "Person" has the same meaning as that term has in subdivision (a) of section eleven hundred one of this chapter. (e) "Vendor payment" means any payment, other than an overpayment, made by a state or the United States to any person, and includes but is not limited to any expense reimbursement to an employee of the state or the United States; but does not include a person's salary, wages or pension. (2) The commissioner may, in his or her discretion, enter into a collection and offset agreement with another state or with the United States secretary of the treasury through the internal revenue service or the financial management service of the department of the treasury of the United States under which the commissioner, on behalf of the state of New York, may, in his or her discretion, agree to pay to a claimant owed a debt by a taxpayer or other person the whole or part of an overpayment or a vendor payment owed by the state to that taxpayer or other person, provided the claimant grants substantially similar privileges to this state. However, the United States will not be required under this section to offset tax overpayments owed by it except to the extent that it agrees to do so. An agreement with the claimant must specify that a taxpayer or any person owed a vendor payment will receive thirty days advance written notice of the offset and will be provided with an opportunity to present written or oral evidence about the application of the overpayment or vendor payment to the debt. A proceeding for judicial review of the decision in the manner provided by article seventy-eight of the civil practice law and rules may be commenced by a taxpayer or a person owed a vendor payment within four months after a copy of a decision adverse to the taxpayer or that person is mailed to the taxpayer or that person. Article forty of this chapter does not apply to any hearing or proceeding on whether an overpayment or vendor payment may be applied to a debt under this section. The remedy provided by this section for review of hearings and proceedings is the exclusive remedy available to judicially determine whether an overpayment or vendor payment may be applied to a debt under this section. The amount of a debt remaining due as certified by a claimant will be prima facie evidence of the correct amount of a debt.(3) The commissioner will calculate the amount of an overpayment and interest thereon that is to be credited against the amount of a past due legally enforceable debt owed by a taxpayer which is certified to the department for collection under this section using the rules in subdivision five of section one hundred seventy-one-f of this article. If a taxpayer or a person owes more than one debt which is certified to the commissioner for collection under this section, any overpayment or vendor payment will be credited against the debts in the order in which the debts accrued. A debt will be considered to have accrued at the time at which the debt became past due. (4) Notwithstanding any other law, the commissioner is authorized to release to a claimant taxpayer information for purposes of implementing and administering an agreement entered into between the claimant and this state under this section.