From the Wall Street Journal:
Connecticut and New Jersey residents with a Hamptons summer cottage or a Manhattan pied-a-terre are about to get a nasty surprise: New York state wants more taxes from them.
A New York court ruled last month that all income earned by a New Canaan, Conn., couple is subject to New York state taxes because they own a summer home on Long Island they used only a few times a year. They have been hit with an additional tax bill of $1.06 million…
Boiled down, the tax court ruled that it doesn’t matter if the home owners live in the house – it only matter if they could live in the house. As long as the house you own in New York meets that criteria, then you are liable for the full range of New York State taxation. I really can’t imagine anything more absurd – but bankrupt, liberal States like New York will look for revenues everywhere they can find them. The question is, what do we do about it?
It would stand to reason that as this couple lives in Connecticut that they are registered to vote in that State – meaning they cannot be registered to vote in New York, and thus all taxation imposed by the State of New York is done without the representation of the Connecticut couple to be taxed on activities done outside of New York. This isn’t a matter of property taxes – you buy property, you buy the property taxes the local government has imposed upon it…but if you live elsewhere and earn your income elsewhere, whence comes this power of a government you are not part of to tax you? To me, this is taxation without representation.
Goodness knows I’m a stalwart for State’s rights, but what New York has done here is tyrannical in its entirety. If it requires federal action, then that should be done – you should only be taxed on income earned within the jurisdiction where your income-making activity is located. New York has no right to tax the income of someone who doesn’t earn New York income. Doing so is as silly as the United States taxing the income of a British firm for money they made in India because they also have an office in the United States. This ruling must not be allowed to stand.
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