New York Laws
Article 8 - Department of Taxation and Finance; Commissioner of Taxation and Finance
171-T - Reciprocal Offset Agreements With the United States or Other States.

(a) "Claimant" means any state or the United States that enters into a
reciprocal agreement under this section or requests application of a
vendor payment or an overpayment to a debt.
(b) "Debt" means (i), for purposes of state debt, a "tax debt" as
defined in section one hundred seventy-one-n of this article and any
other past due legally enforceable obligation owed to a state, which
arises from (A) an enforceable judgment of a court of competent
jurisdiction that is no longer subject to judicial review, or (B) an
enforceable determination of an administrative body that is no longer
subject to administrative or judicial review, or (C) a determination
that has become final or finally and irrevocably fixed and no longer
subject to administrative or judicial review; or (ii), for purposes of
federal debt, debt means any amount of money, funds or property that has
been determined by an appropriate official of the federal government to
be owed to the United States by a person, organization, or entity,
except another federal agency, to the extent such amount is eligible for
offset under federal law. The term includes debt administered by a third
party acting as an agent for the federal government.
(c) "Debtor" means a person who owes a debt.
(d) "Person" has the same meaning as that term has in subdivision (a)
of section eleven hundred one of this chapter.
(e) "Vendor payment" means any payment, other than an overpayment,
made by a state or the United States to any person, and includes but is
not limited to any expense reimbursement to an employee of the state or
the United States; but does not include a person's salary, wages or
pension.
(2) The commissioner may, in his or her discretion, enter into a
collection and offset agreement with another state or with the United
States secretary of the treasury through the internal revenue service or
the financial management service of the department of the treasury of
the United States under which the commissioner, on behalf of the state
of New York, may, in his or her discretion, agree to pay to a claimant
owed a debt by a taxpayer or other person the whole or part of an
overpayment or a vendor payment owed by the state to that taxpayer or
other person, provided the claimant grants substantially similar
privileges to this state. However, the United States will not be
required under this section to offset tax overpayments owed by it except
to the extent that it agrees to do so. An agreement with the claimant
must specify that a taxpayer or any person owed a vendor payment will
receive thirty days advance written notice of the offset and will be
provided with an opportunity to present written or oral evidence about
the application of the overpayment or vendor payment to the debt. A
proceeding for judicial review of the decision in the manner provided by
article seventy-eight of the civil practice law and rules may be
commenced by a taxpayer or a person owed a vendor payment within four
months after a copy of a decision adverse to the taxpayer or that person
is mailed to the taxpayer or that person. Article forty of this chapter
does not apply to any hearing or proceeding on whether an overpayment or
vendor payment may be applied to a debt under this section. The remedy
provided by this section for review of hearings and proceedings is the
exclusive remedy available to judicially determine whether an
overpayment or vendor payment may be applied to a debt under this
section. The amount of a debt remaining due as certified by a claimant
will be prima facie evidence of the correct amount of a debt.
(3) The commissioner will calculate the amount of an overpayment and
interest thereon that is to be credited against the amount of a past due
legally enforceable debt owed by a taxpayer which is certified to the
department for collection under this section using the rules in
subdivision five of section one hundred seventy-one-f of this article.
If a taxpayer or a person owes more than one debt which is certified to
the commissioner for collection under this section, any overpayment or
vendor payment will be credited against the debts in the order in which
the debts accrued. A debt will be considered to have accrued at the time
at which the debt became past due.
(4) Notwithstanding any other law, the commissioner is authorized to
release to a claimant taxpayer information for purposes of implementing
and administering an agreement entered into between the claimant and
this state under this section.