New York Drivers: Pay State Taxes Or Lose Your License

What’s the Latest Development?

Starting this week, New Yorkers who owe more than $10,000 in back state taxes began receiving notices from the government stating that their driver’s license will be suspended if they don’t pay them within a specific time period. The first notice gives them 60 days to arrange payment, and if they haven’t done so within that timeframe, a second notice gives them an additional 15 days. State officials say 16,000 notices will eventually go out, and they expect to get $26 million this year alone. 

What’s the Big Idea?

The notices are the result of a law that went into effect in April and was originally proposed by Governor Andrew Cuomo, who says simply: “Tax scofflaws who don’t abide by the same rules as everyone else are not entitled to the same privileges as everyone else.” The state’s Department of Taxation and Finance says that about 70 percent of the offenders owe close to $478 million in personal income taxes, while another 20 percent owe almost $413 million in business taxes. The new system is similar to the one used to compel child support payments through the threat of suspending a driver’s license.

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Read it at The Wall Street Journal