272. Penalty for failure to pay tax; liability for tax of agent or broker. 1. Except as provided in subdivision three of this section, any person or persons liable to pay the tax by this article imposed, and any one who acts in the matter as agent or broker for such person or persons, who shall make any sale, transfer or delivery of shares or certificates taxable under this article without paying the tax by this article imposed, and any person who shall in pursuance of any sale, transfer or agreement, deliver any certificate or evidence of the sale or transfer of or agreement to sell any such certificate, or bill or memorandum thereof, or who shall transfer or cause the same to be transferred upon the books or records of the association, company, corporation, or business conducted by a trustee or trustees, and any association, company, corporation or business conducted by a trustee or trustees, whose stock or other certificates taxable hereunder is sold or transferred, which shall transfer or cause the same to be transferred upon its books, without having affixed thereto the stamps provided for in this article, and where required by the provisions of this article, a declaration as prescribed by paragraph (c) of subdivision one of section two hundred seventy-a of this article shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall pay a fine of not less than five hundred nor more than one thousand dollars, or be imprisoned for not more than six months or by both such fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court.
2. Any person who acts as agent or broker for a person liable to pay the tax by this article imposed, who shall be subject to or liable for the penalty provided for by subdivision one of this section shall, regardless of whether he has been prosecuted for or acquitted of such criminal liability, in addition to such criminal liability, be liable for the payment of the tax, and such liability may be enforced in the same manner as any liability for tax imposed by this article, and its determination and collection shall be effected pursuant to and subject to the provisions of sections two hundred seventy-nine-a, two hundred seventy-nine-b and two hundred eighty-one of this chapter. The burden, in any hearing held pursuant to such section two hundred seventy-nine-a, of proving the facts to show the absence of liability for the tax imposed by this subdivision upon such agent or broker, shall be upon such agent or broker.
3. The penalties provided by subdivision one of this section shall not apply to any agent or broker or to any other person who shall perform any of the acts set forth in such subdivision, in good faith, in reliance upon a declaration furnished pursuant to paragraph (c) of subdivision one of section two hundred seventy-a of this chapter, as to which declaration such broker, agent or other person, before such act had received no notice of cancellation of such declaration pursuant to the provisions of clause (iii) of subparagraph (2) of such paragraph and has no knowledge or reasonable grounds to believe that the status of such nonresident as a nonresident has changed.
Last modified: February 3, 2019