New York State has a voluntary disclosure and compliance program that is available through on-line filing. It provides for a waiver of penalties. Since New York State has begun sharing its information with New York City, the state provides the option of participating in a unified program for both state and city taxes.  Taxpayers can request a 3 year look-back period as part of the application process. 
 
Governor Paterson recently announced a tax amnesty program that would partially forgive accrued penalties and interest for New York State.  For assessments between 3 and 6 years overdue, penalties would be reduced by 50%.  For assessments overdue for more than 6 years, penalties would be reduced by 80%.  It is expected that the amnesty would take place between January 15 and March 15, 2010.
 

Pennsylvania Amnesty and Voluntary Disclosure Programs
Pennsylvania has announced its tax amnesty program that does not begin until April 26, 2010.  This program will run through June 8, 2010 and provides for a waiver of ½ of the interest and all of the penalties.  The amnesty applies to unknown liabilities for the five years prior to June 30, 2009. Taxpayers that take advantage of this amnesty are barred from participation in future tax amnesty programs. 
 
Pennsylvania also has a Voluntary Disclosure program that limits the look-back period to 3 years plus the current year for sales and use taxes and 5 years plus the current year for income/franchise taxes. There is no interest waiver with this program.
 
Whether amnesty or voluntary disclosure will be better for a particular taxpayer will depend on a taxpayer's circumstances including the number of years of tax exposure as well as the risk that taxpayer will be contacted by Pennsylvania prior to participation in one of the programs.
 

Philadelphia Sales Tax Increase
Effective October 6, 2009, the Philadelphia sales tax rate has been raised from 1 to 2%.