Hellooo New York -
According to this Q&A and the linked sources within, even though the federal government passed forgiveness on the first $10,200 of unemployment benefits, New York may NOT follow federal guidance. You may still owe taxes on your full unemployment amount at the state and local level. For some folx in NYS that's amounting to about $2000.
Some states, like Maryland, have actually forgiven taxes on ALL unemployment payments for 2020 and 2021. Why not New York?
We are pushing the NYS legislature to forgive all tax on unemployment immediately. We've written a two page document to explain it to them and share some worker stories, but we need your help in getting it to them! Your state Senators and Representatives only want to hear from people in their own districts. Please send a quick email to your reps about why this is important to you. We also encourage you to send this along to other New Yorkers and encourage them to write in too. You can find out who your State Senator is here: https://www.nysenate.gov/find-my-senator You can contact them through their website or with their direct emails here.
Find your State Assembly member here: https://www.elections.ny.gov/district-map.html. You can contact them through their websites! Here is a sample email you could send. You can find a link to our PDF here (which we encourage you to attach to your email.)
Sample email: (Insert Personalized Greeting) Start with a sentence or two about who you are and how you are affected. Unemployed New Yorkers are now facing a new massive problem at the state level with unemployment taxes. Where does the Senator stand on this issue and will you come out in support of full tax forgiveness on unemployment? New Yorkers, some of whom have been unemployed for an entire year now through no fault of our own, are being slammed with up to $2000 bills at the state level that we absolutely cannot afford. I've attached a two-page on the issue from ExtendPUA.org. It includes a breakdown of the issue, how other states are handling it, and other New Yorkers' stories. Make sure to sign the message with your email and full address so they know you are a constituent. This is the only way to ensure they pay attention to your request.
Go get 'em, New York! This won't happen without you getting involved.