§ 1299-B. Liability for surcharge. (a) Notwithstanding any provision
of law to the contrary, any person that dispatches a motor vehicle by
any means that provides transportation that is subject to a surcharge
imposed by this article, including transportation network companies as
defined in article forty-four-B of the vehicle and traffic law, shall be
liable for the surcharge imposed by this article, except that in the
case of taxicab trips and HAIL vehicle trips that are also subject to
tax pursuant to article twenty-nine-A of this chapter: (1) a TSP that
collected the trip record and trip fare shall withhold from daily
collections the surcharges due on such trips, and shall withhold from
such collections the surcharges due on cash trips. If the TSP's daily
collections, after retaining any fees to which it is entitled pursuant
to a contract with such taxicab owner or HAIL vehicle owner, are
insufficient to cover the surcharges due on such cash trips, the TSP
shall withhold an amount from subsequent daily collections, to the
extent funds are available, until all surcharges due for a monthly
period have been withheld. If a TSP is unable to withhold all the
surcharges due in a monthly period, it shall withhold such unwithheld
surcharges from daily collections in the next monthly period. A TSP
shall be jointly liable for the surcharge imposed by this article for
all trips for which the TSP collected the trip record, but shall be
relieved of liability for any surcharges attributable to cash trips for
which it was unable to withhold the surcharges because there were
insufficient daily collections during twelve successive monthly periods.
(2) The TSP shall be responsible for filing monthly returns reporting
the surcharges due on all trips for which it collected trip records,
shall remit the surcharges withheld on all such trips and shall report
any unwithheld surcharges due because of insufficient daily collections
to cover the tax due on cash trips. For purposes of this section, the
terms "taxicab trips," "HAIL vehicle trips," "taxicab owner," "HAIL
base," "TSP" and "cash trip" shall have the same meaning as they do in
section twelve hundred eighty of this chapter.

(b) Notwithstanding any law to the contrary: (1) The surcharge imposed
by this article must be passed along to passengers and separately stated
on any receipt that is provided to such passengers. The passing along of
such surcharge shall not be construed by any court or administrative
body as the imposition of the surcharge on the person or entity that
pays for the for-hire transportation trip. All regulatory agencies must
adjust any fares that are authorized by them to include the surcharge
imposed by this article, and must require that any meter or other
instrument used in any for-hire vehicle regulated by it to calculate
fares be adjusted to include the surcharge.

(2) Neither the failure of a regulatory agency to adjust fares nor the
failure to adjust a meter or other instrument used in a for-hire vehicle
to calculate fares shall relieve any person liable for the surcharge
imposed by this article from the obligation to pay such surcharge.