Form AU-474: Application for Refund of the Petroleum Business Tax Because of a Bad Debt (NY)

Form AU-474 is issued by the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance and lets petroleum businesses recover the petroleum business tax (PBT) they paid on fuel sales that later turned into uncollectible debt. If a customer never pays for fuel that was delivered, the seller has still remitted PBT on that transaction to the state. This form is the mechanism to get that tax back rather than absorbing it as a pure loss.

What This Form Covers

The petroleum business tax applies to petroleum products at various points in the distribution chain, and distributors, wholesalers, and retailers registered for PBT purposes are generally the ones who remit it. When a sale on credit later becomes a bad debt — meaning the buyer defaults and the amount is written off for federal income tax purposes — the seller has effectively paid tax on revenue it never received. Form AU-474 is the specific application used to request a refund of that tax under these circumstances.

This is different from reimbursement claims tied to specific uses of fuel, such as commercial gallonage. If your situation involves fuel used in qualifying commercial vehicles rather than a bad debt, you’d want to look at Form AU-473 instead, which handles reimbursement for petroleum business tax on fuel used for commercial gallonage.

Who Needs to File AU-474

This form is intended for businesses registered to collect and remit New York’s petroleum business tax — typically distributors of motor fuel, diesel motor fuel, or residual petroleum products — who have sold product on credit and subsequently determined the debt to be worthless or uncollectible. If your business wrote off a customer’s unpaid fuel invoice as a bad debt on your federal tax return, and PBT was included in that unpaid amount, you’re a candidate for this refund.

It’s not intended for consumers or end users of fuel. Those parties have other reimbursement paths available, including the general Form AU-630 for petroleum business tax reimbursement under different qualifying scenarios.

When to Use It

You should file this application after the debt has actually been written off as uncollectible for federal income tax purposes — the state generally aligns its bad debt refund standards with how the IRS treats the write-off. Trying to file before the debt is formally recognized as worthless on your books and tax filings will likely result in a rejected or delayed claim. Keep documentation showing the original sale, the PBT paid on it, and the write-off itself, since the Department of Taxation and Finance will expect supporting records to substantiate the refund request.

There’s also a time limit for these claims, consistent with New York’s general statute of limitations on tax refunds, so it pays to file as soon as the bad debt is confirmed rather than letting it sit.

How to Get and Complete the Form

Form AU-474 is a fillable-in-print document — it does not support digital data entry, so you’ll need to download it, print it, and complete it by hand or with a typewriter. The current version, dated 9/11, is available directly from the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance website as a PDF.

When filling it out, you’ll typically need to provide your business’s tax identification and PBT registration information, details identifying the specific transaction or transactions involved in the bad debt, the amount of PBT originally paid on those sales, and the date the debt was written off. Because the form doesn’t come with built-in digital fields, double-check your entries for legibility before mailing it in, since illegible handwriting is a common cause of processing delays.

If you’re unsure whether your situation qualifies for AU-474 versus another petroleum tax form, it can help to review the related instructions for similar filings, such as the AU-473-I instructions, which walk through petroleum business tax reimbursement concepts that overlap with bad debt refund logic even though they apply to a different claim type.

Once completed, mail the form along with any required supporting documentation to the address specified in the form’s instructions. Retain copies of everything you send, since the department may follow up with questions or request additional proof of the bad debt before issuing the refund.