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OWNER MUST DRIVE RULES & THE INDEPENDENT MEDALLION DRIVER OPTION The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) recently modified its Owner Must Drive Rules to allow a Medallion owner to designate, under an Independent Medallion Driver Option, an Independent Medallion Driver for a one year period beginning on January 1 of each calendar year. The designation form MUST be submitted to the TLC by November 1 of the current year for the upcoming year. For example, a designation for Calendar Year 2013 must be submitted to the TLC no later than November 1, 2012. The Independent Medallion Driver selected would be responsible for satisfying the owner’s service requirement. One change of the designated driver will be allowed during the calendar year period. If the designated driver does not cover the required shifts, the owner of the medallion MUST drive the vehicle him/herself to make up the difference. The form that will need to be completed by both the Medallion Owner and the selected Driver can be found at the following locations on our web site: www.nyc.gov/html/tlc/downloads/pdf/ind_med_driver_desig_rem oval_app.pdf, www.nyc.gov/html/tlc/html/licenses/medallion_main.shtml. The form lists the documents and the payment amount that are required by the TLC for this option to be selected. Failure to complete the form in its entirety and to provide all required documents and payment will result in the request being denied. The standard annual filing deadline of November 1, 2011 for the upcoming year had been extended to December 23, 2011 for those medallion owners seeking to designate a driver under the Owner Must Drive Option for Calendar Year 2012. This is a one time extension of the deadline. Future selection documents, beginning with the 2012 submissions for Calendar Year 2013, must be filed by November 1 of the current year for the following calendar year. Late filed documents will NOT be accepted.
INDUSTRY NOTICE #11-32 November 30, 2011 MEDALLION INSPECTION FEE At the July 2011 public meeting of the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC), the Commission approved an increase to the fee charged for a Medallion Taxicab inspection at our Woodside Safety & Emissions facility from $50.00 to $90.00 – an increase of $40.00 per inspection. The effective date of the increase was 8/27/2011. Medallion Owners or their Agents will be receiving invoices from the Agency over the next few days for the difference between the prior inspection fee and for the updated fee for any inspections yet to be performed between the new fee’s effective date of 8/27/2011 and their license expiration date. The amount due is based upon the $40.00 increase in the inspection fee, multiplied by the number of inspections remaining during the period between of 8/27/11 and the license’s expiration date.
If you have any questions about this, please contact the TLC Call Center at 212-227-6324. David Yassky, Commissioner
Photo: Elena Michaels Industry Notice #11-33 December 15, 2011 SALES TAX MAY NOW BE ADDED TO LEASE CAP The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) hereby announces that, as a result of a decision of the New York Court of Appeals issued on December 15, 2011, a taxicab owner is now permitted to collect from a driver leasing the medallion the sales tax due on the lease in addition to the standard lease caps established by the rules of the TLC. The sales tax no longer has to be included within the amount of the standard lease cap. This represents a change from current TLC Rule 58-21(c)(5) which does not allow sales tax to be collected in addition to the standard lease cap amounts set by TLC rules. The TLC’s rules regarding lease caps (including standard lease cap amounts) are set forth in TLC Rule 58-21 and can be found online at www.nyc.gov/taxi. COURT VICTORY FOR YELLOW TAXICABS: Statement of the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade Regarding Today’s Legal Victory in the New York State Court of Appeals on the Subject of State Sales Tax in Yellow Taxi Lease Rates December 15, 2011 Today, in a unanimous decision, the highest court in New York State has annulled a punitive rule by the Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) that reduced the rates that taxi garages are able to charge drivers. The case was first brought two and a half years ago by the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade (MTBOT) - the largest trade association of taxi fleets in New York City. This is the third lawsuit and second appeal that MTBOT has brought against the City in three years – all of them have been won by the law firm of Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady, LLP (ECBA), who were most recently retained by MTBOT to provide counsel on Mayor Bloomberg’s outer borough livery street hail and taxi medallion plan. As a result of the decision, as of today, taxi garages are now once again able to charge drivers sales tax just as they did for decades and just as any other merchant in the state charges sales tax to its customers. The state sales and rental vehicle taxes on the “car” portion of the taxicab amounts to $4.77 per shift. Since the implementation of the rule on May 1 2009 the taxi industry has lost millions of dollars. In a decision, written by Judge Robert S. Smith, the New York State Court of Appeals found that the rule, which shifted the state sales tax burden on yellow taxi lease rates from taxi drivers to taxi owners, was “arbitrary and capricious” and that the TLC “has not presented any justification with any support in the record for its decision to require the inclusion of sales tax in its Standard Lease Caps.” In addition, the Court found that “the Commission has not shown any rational basis” for its rule and notes that the TLC itself admitted that its decision to reduce lease caps was “not based on any economic analysis.”
Following the defeat of the City’s “hybrid taxi” mandate by a federal court in October 2008, the TLC issued a harsh new set of punitive rules. One of those rules lowered the lease rates for any non-hybrid taxicab by $15 while raising the lease rates for hybrids by $3. A separate rule which lowered the lease rates by a little more than $3, the state sales tax rate at the time, was also passed. Both rules passed on March 26, 2009. Both rules were later defeated.
MTBOT is a 58 year old trade association that represents 31 yellow medallion taxi fleets comprised of more than 3,500 yellow medallion taxicabs. MTBOT fleets lease taxis to more than 14,000 drivers.
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