New York Laws
Article 12-A - Tax on Gasoline and Similar Motor Fuel
283 - Registration of Distributors.

(i) commits fraud or deceit in his operations as a distributor or has
committed fraud or deceit in procuring his registration;
(ii) has been convicted in a court of competent jurisdiction, either
within or without the state, of a felony, within the meaning of
subdivision eight of this section, bearing on such distributor's duties
and obligations under this chapter;
(iii) has knowingly aided and abetted a person who is not registered
as a distributor in the importation, production, refining, manufacture
or compounding of motor fuel;
(iv) has impersonated any person represented to be a distributor under
this article but not in fact registered under this section; or
(v) has knowingly aided and abetted the distribution of motor fuel
imported, caused to be imported, produced, refined, manufactured or
compounded by a distributor who is not registered by the department of
taxation and finance.
A registration may also be cancelled or suspended if the commissioner
determines that a registrant or an officer, director, shareholder,
employee or partner of the registrant who as such officer, director,
shareholder, employee or partner is under a duty to act for such
registrant or any shareholder directly or indirectly owning more than
ten percent of the number of shares of stock of the registrant (where
such registrant is a corporation) entitling the holder thereof to vote
for the election of directors or trustees of such registrant, was an
officer, director, shareholder, employee or partner of another person
who as such officer, director, shareholder, employee or partner was
under a duty to act for such other person or was a shareholder directly
or indirectly owning more than ten percent of the number of shares of
stock of such other person (where such other person is a corporation)
entitling the holder thereof to vote for the election of directors or
trustees of such other person at the time such other person committed
any of the acts or omissions which are, or was convicted as, specified
in this subdivision within the preceding five years.
5. A registration shall not be cancelled or suspended nor shall an
application for registration be refused unless the registrant or
applicant has had an opportunity for a hearing, provided, however, that
an application for registration may be denied without a prior hearing.
Provided, further, a registration may be cancelled or suspended without
a prior hearing, for failure to file a return within ten days of the
date prescribed for filing a return under this article or article
twenty-eight of this chapter with respect to sales and uses of motor
fuel, or for nonpayment of any taxes due pursuant to this article or
article twenty-eight or twenty-nine of this chapter with respect to
sales and uses of motor fuel if the registrant shall have failed to file
such return or pay such taxes within ten days after the date the demand
therefor is sent by registered or certified mail to the address of the
distributor given in his application for registration, or an address
substituted therefor as provided in this subdivision. A registration may
be cancelled or suspended prior to a hearing for the failure to continue
to maintain in full force and effect at all times the required bond or
other security filed with the tax commission. Provided, however, if a
surety bond is cancelled prior to expiration, the tax commission, after
considering all the relevant circumstances, may make such other
arrangements and require the filing of such other bond or other security
as it deems appropriate. Provided, further, a registration may be
cancelled or suspended prior to a hearing for the transfer of such

registration without the prior written approval of the state tax
commission. A distributor shall immediately inform the department, in
writing, of any change in its address and, if the distributor is a
corporation or partnership, the distributor shall immediately inform the
department, in writing, of any change in its officers, directors or
partners or their residence addresses as shown in its application for
registration.
6. (a) A notice of proposed cancellation or suspension of registration
or refusal to register shall be given to the person registered pursuant
to this article or to a person applying for such registration in the
manner prescribed for a notice of determination of tax and all the
provisions of this article applicable to a notice of determination under
section two hundred eighty-eight of this chapter, including, but not
limited to, those provisions authorizing the commissioner to make a
redetermination on the commissioner's own motion, shall apply to a
notice issued pursuant to this subdivision, insofar as such provisions
can be made applicable to the notice authorized by this subdivision,
with such modifications as may be necessary in order to adapt the
language of such provisions to the notice authorized by this
subdivision. In the case of a person applying to register, a notice of
proposed refusal to register shall be issued promptly after application
for registration is received by the commissioner. Upon timely
application therefor, a hearing shall be scheduled in the division of
tax appeals, and within three months from such application for hearing
(determined with regard to any postponements of any scheduled hearing or
conference or other delay made at the request of the applicant) the
administrative law judge shall render a determination either upholding
the commissioner's refusal to register or ordering the commissioner to
register the applicant. Within fifteen days after the giving of notice
of the administrative law judge's determination, the applicant or the
commissioner may take exception to the determination. If an exception is
taken, the tax appeals tribunal, within seventy-five days from the date
of notice to the tribunal that exception is being taken to an
administrative law judge's determination, shall issue a decision either
affirming or reversing such determination. If the administrative law
judge renders a determination ordering the commissioner to register the
applicant and the commissioner takes exception to such determination,
the commissioner shall not be required to register such applicant unless
and until the tax appeals tribunal issues a decision affirming such
determination. The applicant shall not be registered until there has
been filed a bond or other security in the required amount. Such notice
of proposed cancellation or suspension or of proposed refusal to
register must be given to such person within five years from the date of
the act or omission referred to in subdivision two or four of this
section, except that in the case of acts involving falsity or fraud,
such notice may be issued at any time. All of such notices of proposed
cancellation or suspension or of proposed refusal to register shall
contain a statement advising the person to whom it is issued that the
cancellation, suspension or refusal to register may be challenged
through a hearing process and that the petition for such challenge must
be filed with the division of tax appeals within ninety days after the
giving of such notice. Where a registration is cancelled or suspended
prior to a hearing, the cancellation or suspension may be challenged
through the hearing process provided the petition for such challenge is
filed within ninety days after the giving of notice of such cancellation
or suspension.
(b) Notwithstanding any other provision to the contrary:
(i) In the event that the commissioner determines that an increase in
the amount of the bond or other security filed by a registrant is
required to secure the liability of such registrant, such bond increase
or other security increase must be filed by such registrant within
thirty days from the day the notice and demand therefor has been given
by the commissioner. If the registrant fails to (A) file such increase
in the amount of bond or other security within such period or (B) make
timely application for a hearing with particular respect to the amount
of the increase of such bond or other security, the commissioner shall
cancel or suspend the registration of such registrant.
(ii) The registrant may apply to the division of tax appeals for a
hearing to review an increase in the amount of the bond or other
security required to be filed by making application therefor within
seven days of the day that the notice and demand for an increase is
given by the commissioner, provided, the division of tax appeals may, by
regulation, for the causes stated therein, extend such period to a
period not exceeding fifteen days from the day such notice and demand is
given. If the registrant timely applies for a hearing to review the
increase, such hearing shall be held, unless extended by the division of
tax appeals for good cause, no less than seven days and no more than ten
days after the application for a hearing is received by the division of
tax appeals. Within fifteen days of the receipt of the application for a
hearing, unless extended by the division of tax appeals, the
administrative law judge shall render a determination with respect to
the increase in the amount of the bond or other security and, if the
amount of such bond or other security is determined to be due, such
increase shall be filed within seven days from the day the
administrative law judge gives notice of the determination, or, if
later, thirty days from the day the notice and demand for the increase
had been given by the commissioner. Notwithstanding that the registrant
takes exception to the administrative law judge's determination that an
increased bond or other security is due, if the increased bond or other
security is not filed within such time, the commissioner shall cancel or
suspend the registration of the registrant. Where the administrative law
judge determines that an increased bond or other security is not due but
such determination is reversed by the tax appeals tribunal, if the
increased bond or other security is not filed within seven days from the
day the tax appeals tribunal gives notice of its decision
notwithstanding any judicial review of such decision of the tax appeals
tribunal, the commissioner shall cancel or suspend the registration of
the registrant.
7. Temporary restraining order and permanent injunction against
unlawful importation and forfeiture of unlawfully imported or produced
motor fuel or diesel motor fuel. (a) Whenever evidence is furnished by
the commissioner to any justice of the supreme court, in court or at
chambers, showing that any person not registered as a distributor as
required by this article has imported motor fuel or diesel motor fuel
into this state or caused motor fuel or diesel motor fuel to be imported
into this state or has produced, refined, manufactured or compounded
motor fuel or diesel motor fuel, such justice may make a temporary order
without notice prohibiting such person and his agents from selling,
transferring or otherwise disposing of any such fuel or any fuel and
also prohibiting all other persons in possession of or having control
over the same from selling, releasing, transferring or otherwise
disposing of any motor fuel or diesel motor fuel imported, produced,
refined, manufactured, compounded, sold or transferred by such person
not so registered pending a hearing for a preliminary injunction.
(b) Upon granting a temporary order, the court shall direct that a
hearing be held at the earliest possible time upon such notice and
service as the court shall direct and at the same time, if such action
has not yet been commenced, the commissioner shall commence an action in
supreme court for a permanent injunction and forfeiture of motor fuel or
diesel motor fuel pursuant to paragraph (c) of this subdivision. Where,
after such opportunity for a hearing, the court determines that there is
a substantial probability that the commissioner will prevail in such
action, the court shall grant a preliminary injunction restraining the
sale, release, transfer or other disposition of fuel subject to the
temporary order.
(c) (1) If it is established by clear and convincing evidence that
motor fuel or diesel motor fuel was imported, caused to be imported,
produced, refined, manufactured or compounded by any person not
registered as a distributor as required by this article, the court shall
grant a judgment (i) permanently enjoining such person and his agents
from selling, transferring or otherwise disposing of any such fuel or
any fuel within this state and (ii) declaring the forfeiture of any fuel
that was so imported, caused to be imported, produced, refined,
manufactured, or compounded by such person.
(2) With respect to motor fuel or diesel motor fuel that was imported,
caused to be imported, produced, refined, manufactured or compounded, by
a person not registered as a distributor as required by this article or
that was unlawfully sold or transferred by such person, if it is
established by clear and convincing evidence that any other person in
possession of or having control over such fuel was not a purchaser or
transferee in good faith of such fuel with respect to the fact that such
fuel was so imported, caused to be imported, produced, refined,
manufactured, or compounded by a person not registered as a distributor
as required by this article or that such fuel was so unlawfully sold or
transferred by such person, the court shall grant a judgment (i)
permanently enjoining such other person and his or her agents from
selling, releasing, transferring or otherwise disposing of any such fuel
and (ii) declaring the forfeiture of such fuel in the possession or
under the control of such other person.
(d) The commissioner may, at any time subsequent to the granting of
the temporary order pursuant to paragraph (a) of this subdivision, in
his or her sole discretion consent to a sale of motor fuel or diesel
motor fuel subject to such temporary order which is in the possession or
under the control of a person other than the person or the agent of the
person who imported, caused to be imported, produced, refined,
manufactured, compounded or unlawfully sold or transferred such fuel. As
a condition of granting permission to a sale of motor fuel or diesel
motor fuel pursuant to this subdivision, the commissioner shall require
the payment of all taxes, penalties and interest imposed by and pursuant
to the authority of this chapter with respect to such fuel.
(e) (1) At any time during the pendency of an action under this
section, the motor fuel or diesel motor fuel subject to a temporary,
preliminary or permanent order hereunder may be released from the scope
of such order if there is given an undertaking, in an amount equal to
the market value of such fuel plus state excise and sales taxes and
federal excise taxes, to the effect that there will be paid to the
commissioner the amount of the market value of such fuel and such taxes
in the event that such fuel is adjudged forfeited.
(2) Any person enjoined by a temporary order or a preliminary
injunction issued pursuant to this subdivision may move at any time, on
notice, to vacate or modify it.
(f) The procedures of the civil practice law and rules applicable to
temporary restraining orders, preliminary injunctions and permanent
injunctions not inconsistent with this subdivision shall apply to
temporary orders, preliminary injunctions and permanent injunctions
issued under this subdivision and any provision of this subdivision
which is not in accord with the constitutional mandate of such
procedures of the civil practice law and rules shall be deemed to be
modified as necessary to accord with such a mandate. The procedural
provisions set forth in paragraph three of subdivision (d) and in
subdivision (j) of section eighteen hundred forty-eight of this chapter
shall apply to the forfeiture proceedings under this subdivision and, in
respect to a declaration of forfeiture under this subdivision, the court
shall direct the commissioner to sell or otherwise dispose of such
forfeited motor fuel or diesel motor fuel on such conditions the
commissioner deems most advantageous and just under the circumstances.
The commissioner shall not be required to file any undertaking in
connection with an action pursuant to this subdivision.
8. (a) For the purposes of this section, in determining whether any
person has been convicted of a felony, the provisions of this
subdivision shall apply; provided, however if any such conviction be
subsequently set aside or reversed upon appeal and the accused acquitted
or discharged, the registration which has been cancelled or suspended as
a result of such conviction shall be restored.
(b) A conviction of a felony shall include the conviction of a felony
by any court in this state or by any court of the United States or by
any court of any other state of the United States; provided, however,
that if a crime of which a person is convicted by any court of the
United States or any other state is a felony in the jurisdiction in
which the conviction is had but is not a felony in the state of New
York, then the conviction shall not be deemed a conviction of a felony
for the purpose of this article. In the event that a crime of which a
person is convicted by any court of the United States or by any court of
any other state is not a felony in the jurisdiction in which the
conviction is had but is a felony in the state of New York, then the
conviction shall be deemed a conviction of a felony for the purposes of
this article.
(c) If a person convicted of a felony or crime deemed hereby to be a
felony is subsequently pardoned by the governor of the state where such
conviction was had, or by the president of the United States, or shall
receive a certificate of relief from disabilities or a certificate of
good conduct pursuant to article twenty-three of the correction law for
the purpose of removing the disability under this section because of
such conviction, the tax commission may, in its discretion, on
application of such person and compliance with subdivision two of this
section, and on the submission to it of satisfactory evidence of good
moral character and suitability, again register such person as a
distributor under this article.
9. (a) The registration granted to a distributor by the state tax
commission shall be personal to the person to whom it is granted. The
transfer of such registration without the prior written approval of the
state tax commission is invalid and such transfer without approval shall
be grounds for the immediate cancellation or suspension of the
registration of the registrant. The tax commission shall establish by
rule or regulation a specific procedure for the review of an application
for registration in these instances where there has been a proposed
transfer of registration, and the tax commission in making its
determination with respect to such approval shall review such
application in such instance as any other application for registration

under this section and shall make its determination in accordance with
the criteria set forth in this section. Provided further, the state tax
commission shall issue a determination with respect to such application
where there has been a proposed transfer of registration within
seventy-five days after the day of the receipt of a properly completed
application containing such information as the said tax commission may
require. If the tax commission fails to issue a determination within
such time, the tax commission shall be required to register such
proposed transferee.
(b) For the purposes of this subdivision, a registration shall be
considered to be transferred where, among other things, there is any
addition or substitution of a partner of the registrant or the
acquisition by any person of such shares of stock of the registrant
(where such registrant is a corporation) so that such person becomes the
owner of more than ten percent of the number of shares of stock of such
registrant entitling the holder thereof to vote for the election of
directors or trustees. Provided, however, where stock of the registrant
or a partnership interest in the registrant or, where the registrant is
a sole proprietorship, the interest of the decedent therein along with
the registration, is transferred pursuant to bequest or inheritance to
(A) an ancestor of the decedent, (B) the spouse of the decedent, (C) a
lineal descendent of the decedent, of the descendent's spouse, or of a
parent of the decedent, or (D) the spouse of any lineal descendent
described in (C) hereof, such transfer shall not, in and of itself, be
grounds for cancellation or suspension. Provided, however, within ninety
days of the death of the decedent in such instance, the registrant, the
personal representative of the decedent's estate or such person
described in subparagraphs (A), (B), (C) or (D) of this paragraph must
submit a revised application for registration as a distributor. The
state tax commission may then cancel or suspend the registration because
of the existence of grounds to do so specified in this section for
refusal or denial of an application for registration or for cancellation
or suspension of a registration. The failure to submit a revised
application for registration within such ninety day period shall be
grounds for immediate cancellation or suspension of the registration.
10. For purposes of this section, where reference is made to
ownership, directly or indirectly, of more than ten percent of the
shares of stock of the applicant or another person entitling the holder
thereof to vote for the election of directors or trustees, in the case
of an applicant or another person which at the relevant time has four or
fewer shareholders holding shares entitling the holders thereof to vote
for the election of directors or trustees, twenty-five percent or more
shall be substituted as the applicable percentage in such references to
ownership, directly or indirectly, of voting stock.