Why this exists, and how it's kept accurate

New York doesn't have one sales tax rate to quote. There's a 4% state rate that applies everywhere, a local rate set separately by each county or city, and — in twelve specific counties, not the rest of the state — an additional ⅜% Metropolitan Commuter Transportation District surcharge stacked on top of that. Depending on where a sale is delivered, the combined figure runs from 7% in Saratoga, Warren and Washington counties to 8⅞% in New York City and Yonkers. Registration works the same way: the Department's own bulletin and the DTF-17-I instructions put the Certificate of Authority requirement before a business starts selling — at least 20 days ahead of the first taxable sale, not after it. A page that flattened either of those into one number or a generic "here's how to register" paragraph would be leaving out the part that actually decides what a reader owes, or whether they're already late.

What this site does instead of summarizing

Rather than a single headline rate, this site keeps the full jurisdiction table from Publication 718 — every county and the cities that set their own rate, with the twelve MCTD counties marked — next to a calculator that applies the correct combined rate to a dollar amount someone enters. The Certificate of Authority page keeps the 20-day rule next to the penalty schedule for missing it, rather than folding the timing into a paragraph about how to apply. The same approach carries through the rest of the site: a due-date table instead of "file quarterly," and a penalty table instead of "there are penalties."

Who keeps it that way

One person writes and maintains this site, working independently and from the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance's own tax bulletins, technical memoranda, publications and form instructions — not from other reference sites, and not from an AI-generated summary of the law. It is not the Department of Taxation and Finance, has no relationship with that agency beyond citing its public material, and is not any other state, federal, county or municipal body. It is also not a law firm or an accounting firm, and is not written or reviewed by an attorney, a CPA or an enrolled agent — the disclaimer explains what that means for how to use what's here. The site runs on Google AdSense; nothing on it is a paid placement or a sponsored listing. It is a static page, updated by hand when a bulletin or a rate notice changes, not a live feed of the Department's systems — which is also why every page carries the date it was last checked against the Department's current material, rather than a claim of being current right now.

If a figure here is wrong

A county rate that's moved, a due date that's landed differently than shown, a penalty figure that's changed — that's worth flagging through Contact. Because a local rate or an MCTD county can change between Publication 718 editions, the rates and due-dates pages are the ones most likely to drift, and a reader catching that early is genuinely useful. Any correction gets checked against the Department's current bulletin or notice before the page changes, not accepted on the strength of the report alone.