Relates to reporting of digital assets on the annual statement of financial disclosure filed with the legislative ethics commission or the joint commission on public ethics.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
5621--B
Cal. No. 764
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
March 9, 2023
___________
Introduced by Sen. MAY -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Ethics and Internal Gover-
nance -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as
amended and recommitted to said committee -- reported favorably from
said committee, ordered to first and second report, ordered to a third
reading, substituted by Assembly Bill No. 2873A, substitution recon-
sidered, restored to third reading, amended and ordered reprinted,
retaining its place in the order of third reading
AN ACT to amend the public officers law, in relation to reporting of
digital assets on the annual statement of financial disclosure
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivision 3 of section 73-a of the public officers law is
2 amended by adding a new paragraph 16-a to read as follows:
3 16-a. List below the name and market value of digital assets held by
4 the reporting individual or such individual's spouse or domestic partner
5 in EXCESS of $1,000 at the close of the taxable year last occurring
6 prior to the date of filing. Whenever an interest in digital assets
7 exists through a beneficial interest in a trust, the digital assets held
8 in such trust shall be listed ONLY IF the reporting individual has know-
9 ledge thereof except where the reporting individual or the reporting
10 individual's spouse or domestic partner has transferred assets to such
11 trust for his or her benefit in which event such digital assets shall be
12 listed unless they are not ascertainable by the reporting individual
13 because the trustee is under an obligation or has been instructed in
14 writing not to disclose the contents of the trust to the reporting indi-
15 vidual. The digital assets of which the reporting individual or the
16 reporting individual's spouse or domestic partner is the owner of record
17 but in which such individual or the reporting individual's spouse or
18 domestic partner has no beneficial interest shall not be listed. Also
19 list digital assets owned for investment purposes by a corporation more
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD03465-07-3
S. 5621--B 2
1 than fifty percent (50%) of the stock of which is owned or controlled by
2 the reporting individual or such individual's spouse or domestic part-
3 ner. For purposes of this subdivision, the following terms shall have
4 the following meanings:
5 (a) "Digital asset" shall mean an asset that is issued, transferred,
6 or both, using distributed ledger or blockchain technology, including,
7 but not limited to, digital currencies, digital coins, digital non-fun-
8 gible tokens or other similar assets.
9 (b) "Digital currency" shall mean any type of digital unit that is
10 used as a medium of exchange or a form of digitally stored value. Virtu-
11 al currency shall be broadly construed to include digital units of
12 exchange that: (i) have a centralized repository or administrator; (ii)
13 are decentralized and have no centralized repository or administrator;
14 or (iii) may be created or obtained by computing, manufacturing, or
15 other similar effort.
16 (c) "Distributed ledger or blockchain technology" shall mean a ledger
17 or database that stores shared state by maintaining it across a multi-
18 plicity of devices belonging to different entities and securing it
19 through a combination of cryptographic and consensus protocols, where
20 the shared state serves to authenticate, record, share, and/or synchro-
21 nize transactions involving digital assets or virtual currencies.
22 Category of
23 Market Value
24 as of the close
25 of the taxable
26 year last
27 occurring
28 prior to
29 Self/ Type of the filing of
30 Spouse or Digital Asset this statement
31 Domestic (In Table II)
32 Partner
33 _______________________________________________________________________
34 _______________________________________________________________________
35 _______________________________________________________________________
36 _______________________________________________________________________
37 _______________________________________________________________________
38 § 2. This act shall take effect on the first of January next succeed-
39 ing the date upon which it shall have become a law.
