This retired Brooklyn lawyer won’t be getting the “happy ending” he desired.
A state tax appeals tribunal has ruled that William Halby, 79, owes more than $23,000 in back taxes and penalties for wrongfully deducting nearly $300,000 on hookers, male enhancement pills, porn, sex gadgets and erotic massages.
In a 12-page opinion issued Sept. 23, the tribunal withheld a state administrative law judge’s 2008 ruling in rejecting Halby’s appeal that deductions between 2002 and 2004 were reasonable medical expenses to fight depression and erectile dysfunction brought on by age. A federal tax court also reached a similar conclusion last year regarding identical “medical-expense deductions” of roughly $120,000 for 2004 and 2005.
“Patronizing a prostitute is illegal in New York and, thus, a taxpayer cannot claim a deduction from any illegal operation or treatment…” the tribunal wrote. “Moreover, it was determined that the moneys paid for books and magazines on sex therapy and pornography were not for the treatment of a medical condition, but rather, were instead personal item.
“Therefore we conclude that the [state Division of Taxation] properly disallowed the claimed itemized deductions.”
The ruling offers salacious details of the Bay Ridge divorcee’s spending, including 2002 when he shelled out $41,588 on “therapeutic sex” and another $70,776 on “massage therapy to relieve osteoarthritis and enhance erectile function from frequent organisms.”
In 2003, his rejected claims included $101,126 for sex with hookers, $162 for “sexual performance aids” and $431 for male-enhancement pills. The 2004 return included $79,760 in similar deductions, including $5,632 in bank and credit card charges.
Halby said he might appeal and that that the state shouldn’t be expecting the $23,000 anytime soon.
“I am insolvent,” Halby said. “I rent and don’t have any assets and I live on a pension that can not be seized.”
However, he said he has entered into an installment payment plan with the Internal Revenue Service to pay off his federal tax penalties.
The Post first reported in 2008 that Halby found his “sex surrogates” – preferably brunettes – through ads in The Village Voice and sometimes visited them several times a week. “Over the years, I’ve been with dozens of girls for full-body massage with . . . happy ending,” he then said. “I live a solitary life. I have no social life. I needed that release.”
