Just got off the phone with the New York Department of Taxation and Finance.
The first answer they came up with when I asked the question was (and this is verbatim):
"I assume if there is federal tax on it then there must be New York tax."
I immediately knew it was all over at that point but still hoped against hope.
So I asked if there was some sort of specialist I could speak to since the question was technical. Answer: No
I patiently restated the question in several different ways to try to simplify it. Each time ended in an excuse as to why they cannot answer: "We can't tell you how to fill out your tax form," "1099-B is a federal form, we cannot address what is on that form," etc. Each time I restated the question to eliminate the excuse. It went nowhere.
I can't say she wasn't willing to try... in the end she was actually Googling for it on the Internet. She was a very nice person but she had no idea what I was talking about and it sounded like she didn't even know what a 1099-B was.
Finally she told me she cannot answer, I would have to ask my tax preparer and they could not assist.
Your tax dollars at work.
