JUNE 9 Update: NY County Gas Caps

JUNE 9 Update: NY County Gas Caps

Last updated on June 15th, 2022

We recently published an article about NY county gas caps, based on information available in May. Since then, several counties updated how they are handling the cap. In an abundance of caution, we felt it best to update our piece based upon these recent changes.  It should be noted that there is a lot of controversy surrounding the tax and its administration. This may result in additional changes, so it’s best to refer to the NYS Department of Taxation and Finance and NYS Tax Publication 718-F for up-to-date information or simply give us a call.

From June 1 through the end of this year, New York State is giving a tax break on fuel.

Both the sales tax and excise tax on fuel is taking a holiday, June 1 through December 31. Distributors and wholesalers must exclude these taxes from the price charged for motor fuel and highway diesel motor fuel. In addition, county governments have the option to cap the price their applicable sales tax rate is imposed on based on cents per gallon.

As noted in NYS Tax Publication 718-F, “The Tax Law authorizes counties and cities to change their percentage rate sales tax to a cents-per-gallon method, or stay with a percentage rate method. Effective June 1, 2022, several localities have elected to change their method of computing local sales tax on motor fuel, highway diesel motor fuel, and B20 biodiesel sold as qualified fuel. In many of these localities, the local sales tax will no longer be computed using a percentage rate method and will instead be computed on a cents-per-gallon basis.”

Some counties have signed on to offer the tax break – see table below.

Counties Adopting the Cents-per-Gallon Method (Source: NYS Tax Publication 718-F)

Counties Adopting the Cents-per-Gallon Method

1 Rate will expire on August 31, 2022. 2 Rate will expire on November 30, 2022. 3 Rate will expire on December 31, 2022. 4 Rate will expire on February 28, 2023.  * Sales and uses made in these cities are subject to cents-per-gallon local tax in addition to the percentage rate local tax.

For help with related taxes or accounting, contact RBT CPAs – a leading firm in the Hudson Valley and one of the top 250 nationwide.