Internal Revenue Service's Fiscal Year 2022 Program Letter announced

The Tax Exempt & Government Entities (TE/GE) Fiscal Year 2022 Program Letter (PDF) lists the Internal Revenue Service's priorities for the new fiscal year. 

In addition IRS reported that it will also use its Compliance Program and Priorities webpage to provide information about additional priorities as they are launched.  

IRS listed the following as its Fiscal Year 2022 compliance program and priorities align with the IRS Strategic Goals:

• Strengthen Compliance Activities
• Improve Operational Efficiencies
• Maintain a Taxpayer-Focused Organization
• Ensure Awareness and Collective Understanding
• Leverage Technology and Data Analytics
• Develop Our Workforce

Further, IRS plans to release a summary of its Fiscal Year 2021 accomplishments during the first quarter Fiscal Year 2022, as well as its annual program (or work plan) and accomplishment letters for previous years.

The effective date of a final administrative determination triggers the running of the statute of limitations to challenge the determination

A New York City police officer [Officer] retired from the New York City Police Department [Department] while serving "without firearms privileges." Officer subsequently filed a CPLR Article 78 petition seeking to annul the Department's issuing Officer a retirement identification card containing the words "no firearms." Supreme Court dismissed the proceeding and Officer appealed.

Unanimously affirming the Supreme Court's ruling, the Appellate Division said that the Department "reached a final and binding determination on May 31, 2018," the date on which Officer, then on modified duty status, retired from the Department and the date on which the Department issued Officer a retirement identification card bearing the words "no firearms." In addition, the Department declined to provide Officer with "a good guy letter" that was necessary for Officer to obtain a firearms license.*

The New York City Police Department License Division's "INSTRUCTIONS FOR NYPD RETIREES" states: "A retired law enforcement handgun license will not be issued to you if your [sic] did not receive a Pistol License Inquiry Response form (PD 643-155) a.k.a “good-guy letter, of [sic] if your ID card is stamped “No Firearms.” To obtain a retired law enforcement license, you must have the restriction lifted prior to receiving a license". 

Citing Matter of Baloy v Kelly, 92 AD3d 521, the Appellate Division opined that the possibility of Officer obtaining administrative relief was exhausted when Officer retired without a change in his modified status. Thus, the court concluded, the four-month statute of limitations began to run on May 31, 2018, and Officer's petition, filed in September 2019, was untimely.

Another impediment to Officer's right to challenge the administrative decision was that, as Supreme Court correctly determined, Officer's post-retirement letter "was merely a request for reconsideration of the agency's determination, and thus did not extend the statute of limitations."

* The decision noted that the Department's policy of declining to issue a "good guy letter" in the event an officer retires without firearms privileges.

Click HERE to access the text of the Appellate Division's decision.

 

Municipality's motion for summary judgment based its claim of qualified immunity rejected by United States Circuit Court of Appeals, Second Circuit

In this appeal before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, the Municipal Defendants [Defendants] ask the Appellate court to "exercise pendent jurisdiction" over the matter and reverse the district court’s denial of Defendant's motion for summary judgment on Plaintiff's state law claims of false arrest, malicious prosecution, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and indemnification, claiming that the Defendants were entitled to "qualified immunity."

The Circuit Court said that public officials performing discretionary functions are entitled to qualified immunity barring §1983 claims unless such officials “violated a statutory or constitutional right” and that right “was ‘clearly established’ at the time of the challenged conduct, citing Ricciuti v. Gyzenis, 834 F.3d 162.

The Circuit Court said it had jurisdiction to review an "interlocutory order denying qualified immunity so long as defendants pursue the appeal ‘on stipulated facts, or on the facts that the plaintiff alleges are true, or on the facts favorable to the plaintiff that the trial judge concluded the jury might find.’” In contrast, the Circuit Court said it did not have jurisdiction to review a denial of qualified immunity to the extent it was based on a district court’s finding that there is enough evidence in the record to create a genuine issue as to factual questions that are material to the resolution of the Defendants' qualified immunity claim.

In this instance the Circuit Court held that it lacked jurisdiction to consider the federal law claims at issue here because the Defendant police officers’ qualified immunity defense turns on disputed fact and the Defendants have not shown that they would be entitled to qualified immunity as a matter of law under Plaintiff’s version of the facts.

Rejecting  Defendants' argument that the Defendant's police officers were entitled to qualified immunity on Plaintiff's false arrest claim and her equal protection claim, the court said that the resolution of these claims turn on the sufficiency of such claims to create an issue for the jury, "a contention that ... cannot[be] entertain on interlocutory review."

The Circuit Court of Appeals then explained that having concluded that it lacked jurisdiction to consider the question of qualified immunity as to Plaintiff's federal law claims, it also lack any basis to exercise pendent jurisdiction over Plaintiff's state law claims.

Click HERE to access the text of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals' decision.

Free webinar on Payroll Reconciliation offered by the Internal Revenue Service

The IRS invites NYPPL readers to click registerto sign up for a free webinar on Payroll Reconciliation hosted by the Office of Federal, State and Local Governments on October 14, 2021 at 2:00 PM (ET).

This webinar will cover when your payroll should be reconciled and what payroll amounts to use. It will also explain reconciling gross payroll to taxable income for federal income tax and FICA.