Why This Matters:

New York runs one of the most aggressive state tax audit programs in the country, and its residency audit division is the sharpest edge of that program. The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance (NYS DTF) maintains its own Nonresident Audit Guidelines, a document created to standardize how auditors examine nonresident and part-year resident returns and to walk through the technical issues that come up most often in these cases.

For practitioners licensed and practicing outside New York, an NY audit notice from a client can be disorienting. New York's residency rules do not track the logic most other states use, and the state has been collecting on them aggressively: audits tied to residency questions brought in roughly one billion dollars between 2013 and 2017, and that number grew substantially in the years that followed. A practitioner walking into this without New York-specific context is at a real disadvantage.

What Makes NY Different:

New York applies a two-part test to determine residency, and either part alone can create full New York tax liability:

1. Domicile. Where the client's permanent home is, based on facts like the size and cost of each residence, where they are enrolled to vote, where their vehicles are registered, and other lifestyle indicators.
2. Statutory residency. A client can be taxed as a full New York resident even if domiciled elsewhere, if they maintain a permanent place of abode in New York and spend 184 days or more in the state during the year.

New York also updated its guidance on what counts as maintaining a residence for "substantially all of the taxable year," a threshold that shifted from 11 months to 10 months starting with the 2022 tax year. Small technical shifts like this one can change the outcome of a close case, and they are easy to miss if you are not tracking New York's audit guidance directly.

New York also imposes its own recordkeeping requirement on nonresidents who maintain a permanent place of abode in the state: they must keep and be able to produce documentation substantiating that they did not spend more than 183 days in New York during the year in question. Many out of state practitioners are not aware this obligation exists until an audit is already underway.

What This Course Covers:

This session is built for tax advisors who now have, or expect to have, a client under NY audit and need to understand the terrain before the first document request arrives. It covers how NY residency audits typically begin, what domicile and statutory residency actually mean in practice, what records the state expects a client to produce, and where a tax advisor's role ends and coordination with New York tax counsel needs to begin.

This program addresses procedural and compliance considerations relevant to tax advisors. It does not constitute legal advice, and any dispute resolution, litigation, or formal representation before New York State on residency status should be coordinated with a qualified New York tax attorney.

Credits and Other Information:

• Recommended CPE credit – 2.0
• Recommended field of study – Taxes
• Session Prerequisites and preparation: None
• Session learning level: Basic
• Location: Virtual/Online
• Delivery method: Group Internet Based
• NASBA Sponsor: 146439
• IRS Course ID: PJGWS
• Attendance Requirement:  Yes
• Session Duration: 2 Hours
  • Case Studies and Live Q&A session with speaker
  • PowerPoint presentation for reference

Who Should Attend:

Tax preparers, CPAs, and EAs with clients who have relocated from New York, split time between New York and another state, or maintain a residence in New York while claiming nonresident status elsewhere.

Coder Archives is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors. State boards of accountancy have final authority on the acceptance of individual courses for CPE credit. Complaints regarding registered sponsors may be submitted to the National Registry of CPE Sponsors through its website: www.nasbaregistry.org.

Speaker Profile:

Elan Becker is an Enrolled Agent admitted to practice before the IRS and the founder of Enrolled Agent Concierge, a boutique tax advisory practice known for white-glove service, responsiveness, and practical tax solutions. The firm guarantees a 48-hour client response time or the next month is free. With over a decade of experience in accounting, auditing, operations, and tax, Elan specializes in tax advisory, compliance, and resolution, guiding entrepreneurs and high-net-worth individuals through complex IRS codes to make tax work in their favor.