Lunding v. New York Tax Appeals Tribunal, 522 U.S. 287, 9 (1998)

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Cite as: 522 U. S. 287 (1998)

Opinion of the Court

State Tax Comm'n, 286 App. Div. 694, 146 N. Y. S. 2d 172, aff 'd, 1 N. Y. 2d 680, 133 N. E. 2d 711 (1955), appeal dism'd, 352 U. S. 805 (1956), in which a New Jersey resident unsuccessfully challenged New York's denial of tax deductions respecting New Jersey real estate taxes, interest payments, medical expenses, and life insurance premiums. The Lunding court adopted two rationales from Goodwin in concluding that § 631(b)(6) was adequately justified. First, the court reasoned that because New York residents are subject to the burden of taxation on all of their income regardless of source, they should be entitled to the benefit of full deduction of expenses. Second, the court concluded that where deductions represent personal expenses of a nonresident taxpayer, they are more appropriately allocated to the State of residence. 89 N. Y. 2d, at 289-290, 675 N. E. 2d, at 820.

Based on those justifications for § 631(b)(6), the court distinguished this case from its post-Goodwin decision, Golden v. Tully, 58 N. Y. 2d 1047, 449 N. E. 2d 406 (1983), in which New York's policy of granting a moving expense deduction to residents while denying it to nonresidents was found to violate the Privileges and Immunities Clause because "[n]o other rationale" besides the taxpayer's nonresidence "was . . . proffered to justify the discrepancy in treating residents and nonresidents." According to the court, Golden was decided "solely on the narrow ground that the Tax Commission in its answer and bill of particulars had offered only nonresidence as the explanation for the disallowance" of nonresi-dents' moving expenses. 89 N. Y. 2d, at 290, 675 N. E. 2d, at 821. The court also distinguished Friedsam, supra, on the ground that § 631(b)(6) was enacted to overrule that decision. 89 N. Y. 2d, at 290, 675 N. E. 2d, at 821.

As to § 631(b)(6)'s practical effect, the court noted that "nonresidents are not denied all benefit of the alimony deduction since they can claim the full amount of such payments in computing the hypothetical tax liability 'as if a resident' under Tax Law § 601(e)." Id., at 291, 675 N. E. 2d, at 821.

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