New York stopped collecting estate taxes from the surviving partners in same-sex marriages after the state legalized gay marriage in June 2011, and now, thanks to last month’s Supreme Court decision, it’s issuing refund checks to gay spouses who paid estate taxes as far back as 2008. On Tuesday, Gov. Cuomo called the move “one more step toward justice” for people like 84-year-old Edie Windsor, whose legal battle over a $363,000 federal estate tax bill was the basis for the landmark decision. “I am of course thrilled that I will be getting a refund of the estate tax that I never should have had to pay in the first place,” Windsor said. “What makes me even happier, however, is the fact that no other gay person will ever again have to face the indignity of DOMA.”
