Here's some confusion yet to be resolved under New York's tax law as a result of the passage of the Marriage Equality Act. The Tax Law provides that individual income tax filers use their federal filing status for their state return. Since the federal government does not recognize same-sex marriages and will reject joint-filing by same-sex married couples, such couples must use the "single" filing status and file separate federal returns. Must they, or may they, continue to file their state tax returns as "single"? Or, once married under New York law, must they file their state tax returns as married and, if so, jointly or individually. There is another provision of New York Tax Law stating that if a "husband and wife" file their federal taxes individually, then they must file their New York State taxes as married filing individually (meaning they will be held jointly and severally liable for the entire cumulative tax liability they bear as a couple). That is, when these NY State Tax Law provisions are viewed together, they seem to preclude married same-sex couples in New York from filing their state taxes jointly. And yet the Marriage Equality Act provides that same-sex marriages are to be treated the same as different-sex marriages for all purposes of state law, and that the failure to amend or repeal conflicting state laws is not to be construed as requiring an exception.