12/19/2022 Assessment Community Weekly
The ORPTS Family wishes each of you and yours the very best for the holidays! We hope the season is filled with laughter, warmth, and the things that make it uniquely special for you!
ICYMI: 467 forms now available for 2023
On Thursday we announced that the following forms are available online for 2023:
We apologize for the delay.
Hotline downtime
On Wednesday, December 21, the Assessor/Director Hotline will be unavailable after 11:30 a.m. Thank you for your patience. They’ll be back online to assist you at 8:00 a.m. Thursday.
Congratulations to Bill Film on his retirement!
We wish Rensselaer County RPT Director Bill Film the very best for his next chapters! We’ll miss all the laughs, Bill!
New exemption for volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers signed into law
Recently, Governor Hochul signed Chapter 670 of the Laws of 2022 into law. The new law gives municipalities, school districts and fire districts throughout the State the option to provide a property tax exemption of up to 10% to volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers.
Key links
- New statewide Form RP-466-a-vol
- § 466-a of the Real Property Tax Law as enacted by Chapter 670 of the Laws of 2022
- Notice to be sent to local officials
Details of the new law. In order to be eligible for this partial exemption, volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers must live in the community served by their volunteer organization and meet a minimum service requirement of between two and five years, as set by the respective taxing jurisdiction.
The exemption would be valid only on property used exclusively for residential purposes. If a portion of a volunteer’s property is used for other purposes, the exemption would be prorated accordingly.
Additionally, at local option, a lifetime exemption may be provided to volunteers with at least 20 years of service as long as they maintain their primary residence in the county they have served. Taxing jurisdictions may also allow unremarried surviving spouses of eligible volunteers to retain the exemption.
Note: If your taxing jurisdiction has been offering a similar exemption for volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers under one of the pre-existing statutes (i.e., current RPTL § 466-a through § 466-k), it must adopt a local law, ordinance or resolution to conform to the new statewide exemption statute no later than December 9, 2025 (i.e., three years from the effective date of Chapter 670; see subdivision 8 of the newly-enacted § 466-a). On that date, all of the “old” exemption statutes will be repealed.
Notice to local officials. The law requires that our department send a notification of the new law to chief executive officers of local governments in the thirty counties that have been previously been authorized to offer one of the pre-existing volunteer exemptions under RPTL § 466-a through § 466-k.
In the upcoming days we’ll be sending that notice via email wherever we have an email address (and via USPS elsewhere). We’re cc'ing assessors and county RPT directors.