Allows individuals to register in the donate life registry through personal income tax filings

Showing the cosponsors who are on Agora, A to Z. The official record may list more.

• Democratic26
• Republican15

This bill has cosponsors from more than one party.

Shown in neutral colors by design; Agora is non-partisan.

◆ The sponsor's argument

Why Gustavo Rivera says this is needed

New York has taken significant steps to expand opportunities for indi- viduals to register in the Donate Life Registry by creating multiple secure and familiar "doorways to donation" across interactions that New Yorkers regularly have with state-administered systems, including driv- er's license transactions, voter registration, health exchange enroll- ment, higher education financial aid transactions, and other public-fac- ing platforms. This legislation builds upon that framework by authorizing donor registration opportunities through approved electronic personal income tax filing systems. Importantly, this legislation reflects substantial revisions made in response to operational concerns raised by the Department of Taxation and Finance regarding earlier versions of this proposal. Prior versions raised concerns relating to implementation burdens on tax preparers, ambiguity regarding the Department's authority to administer the program through approved filing software, and the absence of an explicit excep- tion to the Department's tax secrecy provisions permitting disclosure of enrollment information to the Donate Life Registry. The current bill addresses those concerns by substantially narrowing and restructuring the proposal. Rather than imposing obligations on individ- ual preparers, the legislation now focuses on consumer-facing electronic filing platforms approved by the Department and expressly authorizes the Department to administer the registration opportunity and promulgate any necessary rules and regulations governing implementation and consent procedures. The bill also establishes a limited statutory exception to existing tax secrecy provisions solely for purposes of facilitating enrollment of consenting individuals into the Donate Life Registry. Additionally, the legislation provides the Department with greater administrative flexibility by removing prescriptive requirements regard- ing specific data fields and disclosure timelines, instead referring generally to information necessary to carry out the program. Several large and administratively complex states have already successfully implemented similar systems in recent years. Michigan became the first state to permit organ donor registration through state income tax filings in 2023. Wisconsin implemented a similar model in 2025, and California adopted legislation in 2023 establishing donor registration opportunities through state tax filings beginning with the 2025 filing year. These states have demonstrated that donor registration opportu- nities can be integrated into existing electronic tax administration systems while maintaining appropriate protections for taxpayer informa- tion. By creating another broadly utilized and familiar opportunity for New Yorkers to register as organ donors, this bill would help strengthen the Donate Life Registry, increase public awareness regarding organ donation, and potentially save lives through expanded donor partic- ipation.

This is the sponsor's own case for the bill, quoted from their memorandum. It is not Agora's description of what the bill does.