08/26/2024 Assessment Community Weekly

STAR credit update

As you know, most school districts across the state have school tax due dates of September 30. This week, we’ll begin issuing STAR credits to eligible homeowners in those districts, and we’ll continue to issue them through mid-September. Homeowners who enroll in STAR Credit Direct Deposit at least seven days before we process their credit will receive their payment as a direct deposit. Other homeowners will receive a check.

To date, we’ve issued 184,000 STAR credits in school districts with early due dates. By mid-September, we’ll have issued nearly 550,000 more.

If you’re approached by a homeowner wondering when they’ll receive their credit, please direct them to the STAR Credit Delivery Schedule for general timeframes. For real time updates, they can use the Property Tax Credit Lookup to see if their credit has been issued. For more specific questions, direct them to our STAR representatives at 518-457-2036.

STAR program participants can also use the Homeowner Benefit Portal to check on the status of their registrations, as well as to enroll in STAR Credit Direct Deposit, switch from the STAR exemption to the credit, and take action to resolve issues.

The deadline to review your sales reports is here

The deadline to transmit sales corrections is this Friday, August 30. Your timely review is very important because we’ll use the sales data to begin the process of calculating 2025 equalization rates and RARs. Visit the Online Assessment Community to review your sales reports.

For more information, see Sales usability criteria.

On the arms-length report, there is a column which indicates whether the sale is COD/RAR usable. If you find a mistake or need to correct a sale, follow these instructions:

• RPS users: within your RPS file, make the correction and then re-transmit it by going to Standard Reports > Sales > Sales Transmittal Report. Please email the RPS035 to ORPTS.saleint@tax.ny.gov. The ORPTS sales database and online sales reports will be updated with the corrections.
• If you submit paper reports, use Form RP-5217 ACR, Sale Correction Form. Email the completed forms to ORPTS.saleint@tax.ny.gov or mail them to:

NYS TAX DEPARTMENT – ORPTS
ATTN: DATA MANAGEMENT UNIT
W A HARRIMAN STATE CAMPUS 
ALBANY, NY 12227-0801

Reminder: Provide the STAR fact sheet to new homeowners

We encourage local officials and real estate professionals to make our STAR fact sheet available to new homeowners. Doing so helps remind new homeowners to register for the STAR credit.

Bear in mind that we don’t update the handout for the following year until January. This is because homeowners are still registering for the 2024 STAR credit through the end of the calendar year.

Unlike the STAR exemption and other property tax exemptions, you do not need to own your home on taxable status date to be eligible for the STAR credit. Instead, you must own your home and it must be your primary residence as of the last day to pay school taxes without interest or penalty.

Some localities that don’t use the standard assessment calendar have school tax due dates as late as mid-January. Therefore, the online registration for the STAR credit will continue to ask for 2022 income information through the end of the calendar year. 

We’ll release the updated handout for the 2025 STAR credit in early January.