NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A648
SPONSOR: Magnarelli TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the tax law, in relation to filing of income tax returns
PURPOSE:
To eliminate a requirement in the Tax Law that requires the filing of a
NYS Income Tax return even when that taxpayer is not required to file a
federal return.
SUMMARY:
Section 1: Amends § 651(a) (1) of the Tax Law eliminating the require-
ment that a taxpayer with income coming only increased by modifications
under § 651(b)of the Tax Law in excess of $4000 file a State return.
Section 2: Establishes the effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
Current NY law requires a taxpayer that files a federal income tax
return to also file a State return. The section of law requiring the
State return also requires a NY taxpayer who does not have to file a
federal return to file a State return under certain circumstances. They
must still file if they have taxable income in excess of $4000 or the
amount of the NY Standard Deduction, currently $8000 for a single filer
or $16,050 for a couple. Due to the increase in the Standard Deduction,
the $4000 qualifier is out of date and should be repealed.
For example currently, a retired married couple with $2000 in bank
interest income, $12,000 in pension income and $36,000 in Social Securi-
ty income would not be required to file a federal return. However,
because of the $4000 provision in NY they must still file a State
return. Eliminating this provision will save time and money for taxpay-
ers who should not be filing State returns and reduce the amount of
unnecessary returns NYS Tax and Finance must process.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2023-2024: A.230, 2021-2022: A.1311, 2019-2020: A.6794- A
FISCAL IMPACT:
None to the State. Those filers impacted should not need to file a NYS
Income Tax Return.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect January 1, 2026.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
648
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY(Prefiled)
January 8, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. MAGNARELLI, PAULIN, LUPARDO -- read once and
referred to the Committee on Ways and Means
AN ACT to amend the tax law, in relation to filing of income tax returns
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Paragraph 1 of subsection (a) of section 651 of the tax
2 law, as amended by section 6 of part J of chapter 59 of the laws of
3 2014, is amended to read as follows:
4 (1) every resident individual (A) required to file a federal income
5 tax return for the taxable year, or (B) having federal adjusted gross
6 income for the taxable year, increased by the modifications under
7 subsection (b) of section six hundred twelve of this article, [in excess
8 of four thousand dollars, or] in excess of his New York standard
9 deduction, [if lower,] or (C) having received during the taxable year a
10 lump sum distribution any portion of which is subject to tax under
11 section six hundred three of this article;
12 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately and shall apply to taxable
13 years beginning on or after January 1, 2026.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD00851-01-5
