How can New York State make the tax system more fair for freelancers?
I was serving in the Senate when the original Unincorporated Business Tax was passed into law. At that time, the legislature had a preponderance of practicing lawyers (now, lawyers are a small minority). The proposal for this new tax was highly scrutinized and widely discussed by the members. At the time, law and accounting firms were generally organized as partnerships. As such, they were not subject to corporate business taxes. Many of these firms had hundreds of partners and employees. They were functionally the equivalents of incorporated businesses in the character and scope of their economic activities. This was the rationale for imposing the UBT. In those days I prepared my own taxes. For a few years I carefully read the criteria for the UBT. To be subject to the UBT, a person with a professional practice or business endeavor had to employ other people or lease or own commercial business property. My little part-time, one-man practice in my own home was not covered. Imagine my s
