§ 1407. Designation of agents. (a) The commissioner of taxation and finance is authorized to designate such banks, trust companies, savings banks, New York state branches of a foreign bank, industrial banks, savings and loan associations, national banking associations, federal savings and loan associations, title insurance corporations and recording officers as he shall deem necessary to act as his agent for purposes of collecting the tax imposed by this article. The commissioner of taxation and finance shall provide for the manner in which any such person may be designated as his agent subject to such terms and conditions as he shall prescribe. The real estate transfer tax shall be paid to such agents as provided in section fourteen hundred ten of this article. At the time such a person shall be designated as an agent of the commissioner of taxation and finance, the commissioner of taxation and finance shall prescribe whether such agent shall collect the real estate transfer tax through the sale of documentary stamps, through the use of a metering machine, by any other method which the commissioner of taxation and finance, by regulation, may provide, or by one or more of such methods.

(b) Every person designated to act as an agent pursuant to subdivision (a) of this section shall remit to the commissioner of taxation and finance any funds collected by such agent and any returns filed with such agent under this article, less any fee allowed under subdivision (c) of this section, at such times as the commissioner of taxation and finance shall prescribe and shall follow such procedures and keep such records as the commissioner of taxation and finance may prescribe. Each county (other than the counties comprising New York city) and New York city shall pay all expenses occasioned by the duties of their respective recording officers to collect the tax imposed by this article, including any expense for extra clerks.

(c) 1. When a recording officer designated to act as such agent is presented with a conveyance for recording that is accompanied by a receipt issued by the commissioner pursuant to subdivision (c) of section fourteen hundred twenty-three of this article, such recording officer shall be relieved of the responsibility to collect the real estate transfer tax thereon. He or she shall nonetheless be entitled to the portion of such tax that he or she would otherwise have retained pursuant to this subdivision, as provided by subdivision (b) of § 1423 of the tax law.

2. When a recording officer is presented with a conveyance for recording that is not accompanied by a receipt described in paragraph one of this subdivision, he or she shall collect the applicable real estate transfer tax and shall retain, from the real estate transfer tax which he or she collects, the sum of one dollar for each of the first five thousand conveyances accepted for recording and for which he or she has issued a documentary stamp or metering machine stamp or upon which instrument effecting the conveyance he or she has noted payment of the tax or that no tax is due, pursuant to any other method for payment of the tax provided for in the regulations of the commissioner of taxation and finance, during each annual period commencing on the first day of August and ending on the next succeeding thirty-first day of July and seventy-five cents for each conveyance in excess of five thousand accepted for recording and for which he or she has issued such a stamp or upon which instrument effecting the conveyance he or she has noted payment of the tax or that no tax is due, pursuant to such other method, during such annual period. Such fee shall be payable even though the stamp issued or such notation shows that no tax is due. Such a fee paid to the register of the city of New York shall belong to the city of New York and such a fee paid to a recording officer of a county outside such city shall belong to such officer's county. With respect to any other agents designated to act pursuant to subdivision (a) of this section, the commissioner of taxation and finance shall have the power to provide, at his or her discretion, for payment of a fee to such agent, in such manner and amount and subject to such limitations as he or she may determine, but any such fee for any annual period shall not be greater than the sum of one dollar for each of the first five thousand conveyances for which such agent has issued a documentary stamp or metering machine stamp or upon which instrument effecting the conveyance he or she has noted payment of the tax or that no tax is due, pursuant to any other method for payment of the tax provided for in the regulations of the commissioner of taxation and finance, during such annual period and seventy-five cents for each conveyance in excess of five thousand for which such agent has issued such a stamp or upon which instrument effecting the conveyance such agent has noted payment of the tax or that no tax is due, pursuant to such other method, during such annual period.