527. Interest and penalty. (a) Interest on tax due. If any amount of tax is not paid on or before the last date prescribed in this article for payment (determined without regard to any extension of time for payment), interest on such amount at the rate of one percent per month or fraction thereof shall be paid for the period from such last date to the date paid.
(b) Penalty. Any person failing to file a return or to pay any tax within the time required by or pursuant to this article (determined with regard to any extension of time for filing or paying) shall be subject to a penalty of fifty dollars or ten percent of the amount of tax determined to be due, whichever is greater. If the commissioner determines that the failure or delay was due to reasonable cause and not due to willful neglect, the commissioner shall waive all or part of such penalty.
(c) Interest on refunds. Interest at the rate determined under subdivision (a) of this section shall be paid with respect to a refund claim for the period ninety days after receipt of a claim for refund in processible form to the date immediately preceding the date of the refund check. No interest shall be paid if the check is mailed within ninety days of such receipt.
(d) Fraud. If the failure to pay any tax within the time required by or pursuant to this article is due to fraud, in lieu of the penalties provided for in subdivision (b) of this section, there shall be added to the tax (1) a penalty of two times the amount of tax due.
(e) Enforcement of penalty and interest. The penalties and interest imposed by or pursuant to this section shall be assessed, collected and paid in the same manner as the taxes imposed by this article.
(f) Cooperative agreement. If the commissioner enters into a cooperative agreement pursuant to section five hundred twenty-eight of this article and: (1) this state is thereby authorized to impose penalties on taxes collected on behalf of other jurisdictions pursuant to such agreement, then the penalties imposed by this section shall apply with respect to such taxes; (2) the rates of interest or any penalty or the method of computation contained therein is different from that prescribed in this section or the imposition of a penalty prescribed in this section is precluded by such agreement, then the provisions of such agreement shall apply.
(g) Location of acts; evidence. For purposes of this chapter the failure to do any act required by or under the provisions of this article shall be deemed an act committed in part at the office of the department of taxation and finance in Albany. For purposes of this chapter, the certificate of the commissioner to the effect that a tax has not been paid, that a return has not been filed, or that information has not been supplied, as required by or under the provisions of this article, or that a claim for refund has been filed, shall be prima facie evidence that such tax has not been paid, that such return has not been filed, that such information has not been supplied, or that such claim has been filed.
(h) Prosecution. Violations of this article may be prosecuted by the attorney general in the name of the people of the state, in which case the attorney general shall exercise all powers and perform all the duties which the district attorney would otherwise be authorized to exercise or to perform therein.
(i) Cross-reference. For criminal penalties and other offenses, see article thirty-seven of this chapter.
Last modified: February 3, 2019