2020 New York Laws
TAX - Tax
Article 20 - Tax on Cigarettes and Tobacco Products
470 - Definitions.

§  470.  Definitions.  When  used  in this article the following words
shall have the meanings herein indicated: 1. "Cigarette." Any  roll  for
smoking  made  wholly  or  in part of tobacco or of any other substance,
irrespective of size or  shape  and  whether  or  not  such  tobacco  or
substance  is  flavored, adulterated or mixed with any other ingredient,
the wrapper or cover of which is made of paper or any other substance or
material but is not made in whole or in  part  of  tobacco.  "Cigarette"
shall not include a research tobacco product.
  2.  "Tobacco  products."  Any  cigar,  including  a  little  cigar, or
tobacco, other than cigarettes, intended  for  consumption  by  smoking,
chewing,  or  as  snuff.  "Tobacco  products" shall not include research
tobacco products.
  2-a. "Roll-your-own tobacco." Any tobacco product that, because of its
appearance, type, packaging or labeling, is suitable for use and  likely
to  be  offered  to,  or  purchased  by, consumers as tobacco for making
cigarettes.
  2-b. "Little cigar." Any roll for smoking made wholly or  in  part  of
tobacco  if such product is wrapped in any substance containing tobacco,
other than natural leaf tobacco wrapper, and weighing not more than four
pounds per thousand or with a  cellulose  acetate  or  other  integrated
filter.
  3.  "Person"  includes an individual, copartnership, limited liability
company, society, association, corporation, joint stock company, and any
combination  of  individuals  and  also  an   executor,   administrator,
receiver, trustee or other fiduciary.
  4.  "Sale" means any transfer of title or possession or both, exchange
or barter, conditional or otherwise, in  any  manner  or  by  any  means
whatever or any agreement therefor.
  5.  "Retail sale" or "sale at retail" means a sale to a consumer or to
any other person for any purpose other than resale.
  6. "Wholesale price." The price for  which  a  manufacturer  or  other
person  sells  tobacco  products to a distributor, including the federal
excise taxes paid by  the  manufacturer  or  other  person,  before  the
allowance of any discount, trade allowance, rebate or other reduction.
  The  invoice received by a distributor with respect to its purchase of
a tobacco product shall be presumptive evidence of the  wholesale  price
of such tobacco product.
  7.  "Dealer."  Any  wholesale  dealer and retail dealer as hereinafter
defined.
  8. "Wholesale dealer." Any person who (a) sells cigarettes or  tobacco
products  to  retail dealers or other persons for purposes of resale, or
(b) owns, operates or maintains one or more cigarette or tobacco product
vending machines in, at or upon premises owned or occupied by any  other
person,  or (c) sells cigarettes or tobacco products to an Indian nation
or  tribe  or  to  a  reservation  cigarette  seller  on   a   qualified
reservation.
  9.  "Retail  dealer." Any person other than a wholesale dealer engaged
in selling cigarettes or tobacco products. For purposes of section  four
hundred  eighty-a of this article and section eleven hundred thirty-four
of this chapter, such term shall include for each such person engaged in
selling cigarettes or tobacco products all "persons required to  collect
tax," as defined in subdivision one of section eleven hundred thirty-one
of this chapter.
  10.  "Package."  The  individual package, box or other container in or
from which retail sales of cigarettes are normally made or  intended  to
be made.

  11.  "Agent."  Any person licensed by the commissioner of taxation and
finance to purchase and affix adhesive or meter stamps  on  packages  of
cigarettes under this article.
  12.  "Distributor."  Any  person  who imports or causes to be imported
into this state any tobacco product (in excess of fifty  cigars  or  one
pound  of  tobacco) for sale, or who manufactures any tobacco product in
this state, and any person within or without the state who is authorized
by the commissioner of taxation and finance to make returns and pay  the
tax  on tobacco products sold, shipped or delivered by him to any person
in the state.
  13. "Unstamped  or  unlawfully  stamped  packages  of  cigarettes."  A
package  of  cigarettes  which  bears no tax stamp, or which bears a tax
stamp of another state or taxing jurisdiction is  considered  to  be  an
unstamped  package  of  cigarettes.  A  package  of cigarettes bearing a
counterfeit New York state or a counterfeit joint  state  and  New  York
city tax stamp is an unlawfully stamped package of cigarettes.
  14.  "Indian  nation  or  tribe."  One of the following New York state
Indian nations or tribes: Cayuga Nation,  Oneida  Nation  of  New  York,
Onondaga  Nation,  Poospatuck  or  Unkechauge Nation, Saint Regis Mohawk
Tribe, Seneca Nation of Indians,  Shinnecock  Indian  Nation,  Tonawanda
Band of Seneca and Tuscarora Nation.
  15.  "Qualified Indian." A person duly enrolled on the tribal rolls of
one of the Indian nations or tribes. In the case of  the  Cayuga  Indian
Nation  of  New  York,  such term shall include enrolled members of such
nation when such enrolled members  purchase  cigarettes  on  any  Seneca
reservation.
  16.  "Qualified  reservation."  (a)  Lands held by an Indian nation or
tribe that is located within the reservation of that nation or tribe  in
the state;
  (b)  Lands  within  the  state  over  which  an Indian nation or tribe
exercises governmental power and that are either (i) held by the  Indian
nation  or  tribe  subject  to restrictions by the United States against
alienation, or (ii) held in trust by the United States for  the  benefit
of such Indian nation or tribe;
  (c)  Lands held by the Shinnecock Tribe or the Poospatuck (Unkechauge)
Nation within their respective reservations; or
  (d)  Any  land  that  falls  within  paragraph  (a)  or  (b)  of  this
subdivision,  and  which  may  be  sold  and replaced with other land in
accordance with an Indian nation's or  tribe's  land  claims  settlement
agreement with the state of New York, shall nevertheless be deemed to be
subject to restriction by the United States against alienation.
  17. "Reservation cigarette seller." A seller of cigarettes which is an
Indian  nation or tribe, one or more members of such tribe, or an entity
wholly owned by either  or  both,  which  sells  cigarettes  within  the
boundaries of a qualified reservation.
  18.  "Snuff."  Any finely cut, ground, or powdered tobacco that is not
intended to be smoked.
  19. "Cigar." Any roll of tobacco wrapped in leaf  tobacco  or  in  any
substance  containing  tobacco (other than any roll of tobacco that is a
cigarette as defined in subdivision one of this section). "Cigar"  shall
include, except where expressly excluded, any little cigar.
  20. "Research tobacco product." A tobacco product or cigarette that is
labeled  as a research tobacco product, manufactured for use in research
for health, scientific, or similar experimental purposes, is exclusively
used for such purposes by an accredited college, university or hospital,
or a researcher affiliated with an  accredited  college,  university  or
hospital,  and  is  not  offered  for  sale or sold to consumers for any
purpose.

  21. "Affiliated person." Persons are affiliated persons  with  respect
to  each  other  where  one of such persons has an ownership interest of
more than five percent, whether direct or indirect,  in  the  other,  or
where an ownership interest of more than five percent, whether direct or
indirect,  is  held  in  each of such persons by another person, or by a
group of other persons that are affiliated persons with respect to  each
other.