NYTWA fought hard to stop the $1 taxi tax. While we brought it down to 50 cents, we are now working to make sure drivers don’t lose more money in the process of tax collection.  The fares will go up by fifty cents on November 1, 2009. The tax is to be paid solely by the passenger.  However, in cases of credit card fares, drivers will subsidize the tax, as the 5% transaction fee will be applied to the tax.

While the tax is required under state legislation, rules governing how the money will be collected are under the TLC.  Medallion owners will be the designated tax collectors.  Garages/brokers can take out the tax monies from a driver’s credit card reimbursements (after the 5% cut.)  If there is still a balance, then the money will be cut from the security deposit.  And finally in cash if a balance still remains.  The meter receipt will itemize the fifty cents tax and include it in the total fare.  

NYTWA Demands Control and Protections for Drivers

NYTWA called for control and economic and legal protections for drivers as part of TLC rulemaking on the tax collection.  

Click here to download entire statement

NYTWA Proposals:

1. Give the authority to the driver to decide if he or she wants to be the Taxpayer.
2. Require vendors to provide free and timely copies of records to drivers
3. Require all end of shift receipts to itemize the amount for incomplete, voided or disputed fares and number of such fares so driver does not have to pay tax out of pocket.
4. Require vendors to give drivers the same documents that the owner or agent is provided
5. Require owner or agent to itemize on receipt the amount extracted in tax and the source (i.e. credit card, security deposit, cash)
6. Explicitly add the MTA Tax to the list of items for which the owner or agent cannot overcharge
7. Deduct the Tax from the Gross, not the Net Credit Card Fare
8. Codify that the driver shall not be held responsible for the tax on a fare that is not paid by the rider.
9. Require owner or agent to pay for changes to the meter or signage on the car.
10. Forbid the extraction of the interest on a security deposit.

What Drivers Lose:

•    Drivers Will Pay 5% of Tax on All Credit Card Fares Out of Pocket
•    Drivers Will Pay 50 cents out of pocket on disputed or voided fares
•    Drivers Will Pay for Administrative Costs and Record-Keeping

How Others Profit:

MTA: Anticipated Revenue of over $70 million

Garages/Brokers: Interest from holding tax monies collected from drivers on a daily basis.

NYTWA REACTION TO TAXI TAX VOTE

An Open Letter to Albany Leadership:

May 5, 2009: Four days after International Labor Day, a tradition borne in the streets of Chicago, our lawmakers in Albany have unleashed a devastating assault on one of New York City’s most struggling workforces.

Due to your decision to add a fifty cents tax on every taxi ride, drivers will suffer loss in tips or ridership and on some days both. On fares paid by credit or debit cards, drivers will actually subsidize the tax as they lose 5% on the total transaction. As taxi fares are rarely raised more than twice a decade, drivers will not get a raise for our own incomes for several years to come. This also means we’ve lost the opportunity to have a fare raise go toward health care—leaving eighty percent drivers uninsured. And for all the less pay, drivers will get more work—adding tax collecting to their already 12-hour grueling shifts. While many of you will leave office, your decision in haste under the MTA’s gun will hold us hostage for the long-term. What’s all the more painful is that there were alternatives here—a modest increase in the jet fuel tax from the current 6 cents to even $1 would generate more than enough revenue. As would a 5 cents sales tax on gasoline. Instead of standing up to the airlines— they reported $346 billion profits in 2008—or facing down even richer oil companies—you chose to take on taxi workers.

We were told a plan was necessary to bailout the MTA so working families could be spared from the daily loss of higher fares. Yet, you’ve singled out, isolated and pinned the bailout for the sake of the working class on the backs of one segment of the same said class. We don’t know what will be harder to swallow—the economic losses or your act of hypocrisy.

Taxi Motorcade Drives Message to Albany: No Taxi Tax! Not on Our Backs!
Thursday, 30 April 2009 22:41

Dozens of taxis caravanned to Albany on Tuesday, April 28th turning the streets and highways of New York into a sea of yellow from Manhattan to Albany and across the Thruway. Taxis from NYTWA and LOMTO (League of Mutual Taxi Owners) covered window to window with signs of, “No Taxi Tax,” “Not On Our Backs,” and “Support Jet Fuel Tax” traveled 300 miles round trip to stop lawmakers from passing a $1 taxi tax as toward a bailout of the MTA and to fix upstate roads and bridges. The proposal is now in the Rules Committee and a full Senate vote is expected the week of May 4th. The bill would then go to the Assembly. Fifty taxis, seventy drivers and industry representatives traveled to make Albany hear the pleas of over 47,000-licensed taxi drivers: We are struggling enough. Don’t single us out. The taxi tax has been under growing criticism. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has called it bothersome and impractical. Governor Paterson said the $1 would be too burdensome to already struggling drivers.

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