470. Definitions. When used in this article the following words shall have the meanings herein indicated: 1. "Cigarette." Any roll for smoking made wholly or in part of tobacco or of any other substance, irrespective of size or shape and whether or not such tobacco or substance is flavored, adulterated or mixed with any other ingredient, the wrapper or cover of which is made of paper or any other substance or material but is not made in whole or in part of tobacco.
2. "Tobacco products." Any cigar, including a little cigar, or tobacco, other than cigarettes, intended for consumption by smoking, chewing, or as snuff.
2-a. "Roll-your-own tobacco." Any tobacco product that, because of its appearance, type, packaging or labeling, is suitable for use and likely to be offered to, or purchased by, consumers as tobacco for making cigarettes.
2-b. "Little cigar." Any roll for smoking made wholly or in part of tobacco if such product is wrapped in any substance containing tobacco, other than natural leaf tobacco wrapper, and weighing not more than four pounds per thousand or with a cellulose acetate or other integrated filter.
3. "Person" includes an individual, copartnership, limited liability company, society, association, corporation, joint stock company, and any combination of individuals and also an executor, administrator, receiver, trustee or other fiduciary.
4. "Sale" means any transfer of title or possession or both, exchange or barter, conditional or otherwise, in any manner or by any means whatever or any agreement therefor.
5. "Retail sale" or "sale at retail" means a sale to a consumer or to any other person for any purpose other than resale.
6. "Wholesale price." The established price for which a manufacturer sells tobacco products to a distributor, before the allowance of any discount, trade allowance, rebate or other reduction.
In the absence of such an established price, a manufacturer's invoice price of any tobacco product shall be presumptive evidence of the wholesale price of such tobacco product, and in its absence the price at which such tobacco products were purchased shall be presumed to be the wholesale price, unless evidence of a lower wholesale price shall be established or any industry standard of markups relating to the purchase price in relation to the wholesale price shall be established.
7. "Dealer." Any wholesale dealer and retail dealer as hereinafter defined.
8. "Wholesale dealer." Any person who (a) sells cigarettes or tobacco products to retail dealers or other persons for purposes of resale, or (b) owns, operates or maintains one or more cigarette or tobacco product vending machines in, at or upon premises owned or occupied by any other person, or (c) sells cigarettes or tobacco products to an Indian nation or tribe or to a reservation cigarette seller on a qualified reservation.
9. "Retail dealer." Any person other than a wholesale dealer engaged in selling cigarettes or tobacco products.
10. "Package." The individual package, box or other container in or from which retail sales of cigarettes are normally made or intended to be made.
11. "Agent." Any person licensed by the commissioner of taxation and finance to purchase and affix adhesive or meter stamps on packages of cigarettes under this article.
12. "Distributor." Any person who imports or causes to be imported into this state any tobacco product (in excess of fifty cigars or one pound of tobacco) for sale, or who manufactures any tobacco product in this state, and any person within or without the state who is authorized by the commissioner of taxation and finance to make returns and pay the tax on tobacco products sold, shipped or delivered by him to any person in the state.
13. "Unstamped or unlawfully stamped packages of cigarettes." A package of cigarettes which bears no tax stamp, or which bears a tax stamp of another state or taxing jurisdiction is considered to be an unstamped package of cigarettes. A package of cigarettes bearing a counterfeit New York state or a counterfeit joint state and New York city tax stamp is an unlawfully stamped package of cigarettes.
14. "Indian nation or tribe." One of the following New York state Indian nations or tribes: Cayuga Nation, Oneida Nation of New York, Onondaga Nation, Poospatuck or Unkechauge Nation, Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe, Seneca Nation of Indians, Shinnecock Indian Nation, Tonawanda Band of Seneca and Tuscarora Nation.
15. "Qualified Indian." A person duly enrolled on the tribal rolls of one of the Indian nations or tribes. In the case of the Cayuga Indian Nation of New York, such term shall include enrolled members of such nation when such enrolled members purchase cigarettes on any Seneca reservation.
16. "Qualified reservation." (a) Lands held by an Indian nation or tribe that is located within the reservation of that nation or tribe in the state;
(b) Lands within the state over which an Indian nation or tribe exercises governmental power and that are either (i) held by the Indian nation or tribe subject to restrictions by the United States against alienation, or (ii) held in trust by the United States for the benefit of such Indian nation or tribe;
(c) Lands held by the Shinnecock Tribe or the Poospatuck (Unkechauge) Nation within their respective reservations; or
(d) Any land that falls within paragraph (a) or (b) of this subdivision, and which may be sold and replaced with other land in accordance with an Indian nation's or tribe's land claims settlement agreement with the state of New York, shall nevertheless be deemed to be subject to restriction by the United States against alienation.
17. "Reservation cigarette seller." A seller of cigarettes which is an Indian nation or tribe, one or more members of such tribe, or an entity wholly owned by either or both, which sells cigarettes within the boundaries of a qualified reservation.
18. "Snuff." Any finely cut, ground, or powdered tobacco that is not intended to be smoked.
19. "Cigar." Any roll of tobacco wrapped in leaf tobacco or in any substance containing tobacco (other than any roll of tobacco that is a cigarette as defined in subdivision one of this section). "Cigar" shall include, except where expressly excluded, any little cigar.
Last modified: February 3, 2019