Long Island homeowners will have to wait about another month to re-register for their STAR school property tax exemption.
The online registration service rolled out this week by the state tax department won’t have property tax data for homes located in downstate counties, including Suffolk, until the latter part of September, according to N.Y. State Tax Department spokesman Geoffrey Gloak.
“The towns in those counties have a later tax calendar than the counties upstate,” Gloak said in an interview yesterday. “We receive data from the towns in those counties later than we do in the rest of the state.”
Gloak said the tax department expects to have the downstate counties’ tax data loaded into its online database by the latter part of September, though he couldn’t provide a specific date. At that point, local homeowners will be able to go to the state tax department website register for the basic star exemption. They can then use the online lookup https://www8.tax.ny.gov/STRL/strlStart to find their STAR code, which is needed to complete the online registration process. The property owner’s name and the property address is all that’s needed to look up the STAR code online, Gloak said.
Additionally, the state tax department is mailing STAR codes to every homeowner across the state. Those letters are being sent out by region, Gloak said. Letters to Suffolk County homeowners will be the last to go out, during the week of Sept. 30 to Oct. 4, he said.
“There will still be plenty of time to register online,” Gloak said, noting that the registration period is open till Dec. 31.
Homeowners who are unable to register online will be able to register by phone at (518) 457-2036.
Registration cannot be handled by the local town assessors’ offices.
The state has published a video about the STAR registration program and has also produced an online demo providing step-by-step instructions for online registration.
Press releases issued last week by State Sen. Ken LaValle and Assemblyman Fred Thiele, announcing the new registration requirement and the beginning of online registration Aug. 19, did not explain that Suffolk homeowners would not have access to the online registration system until late next month. A state tax department press release issued Tuesday also did not mention the delay for the eight downstate counties.
A report published in RiverheadLOCAL last week prompted an email from Riverhead assessor Laverne Tennenberg, who was concerned that the story would confuse local residents, who would not be able to register online as of Aug. 19. Tennenberg stressed that the town assessors “will have no role in this process at all. We cannot register them here locally at Town Hall — it will either be online or by phone to the State.”
The new registration requirement was approved by state lawmakers after the state found evidence that some homeowners were receiving inappropriate or fraudulent exemptions, according to LaValle.
The basic STAR exemption is available for owner-occupied primary residences where the resident owners’ and their spouses income is less than $500,000. It exempts the first $30,000 of the full value of a home from school taxes, according to the state tax department website.
The enhanced STAR exemption provides an increased benefit for the primary residences of senior citizens (age 65 and older) with qualifying incomes. It exempts the first $63,300 of the full value of a home from school taxes as of 2013-14 school tax bills.
STAR exemptions apply only to school district taxes. They don’t apply to county, town or special district taxes.
esident homeowners applying for STAR for the first time are not affected by this year’s registration procedure. To apply for STAR a new applicant must file form RP-425, “Application for School Tax Relief Exemption,” with the town assessor. The form is available for download at the tax department’s website.
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