Putnam County Homeowners Must Reapply for Basic STAR
Putnam County homeowners who receive a basic STAR (School Property Tax Relief) are going to have to reapply to receive the exemption, a representative of the New York State’s Department of Taxation and Finance said during a Tuesday county legislature public hearing.
With abuses to the program, regional director John Wolham said a new program put in place by the state legislature requires everyone that receives the Basic STAR exemption must register again in order to get the benefit in 2014. The initiative is statewide and the deadline to apply is Dec. 31.
“There is a concern that statewide there may be a fair number of individuals receiving Basic STAR that shouldn’t,” Wolham said during the meeting.
Wolham said that notifications would start being mailed out this week to inform residents. The paperwork has to be filed with the Department of Tax and Finance, not with a resident’s local assessor or through the Putnam County Real Property Tax Service Agency. The only exception is if a resident is a first-time homeowner.
Enhanced STAR benefits that senior citizens are afforded are not affected by the new registration requirement since they have to apply annually for that exemption.
Homeowners can sign up online or over the phone and Wolham said the process is five minutes, “ten minutes if you’re taking your time.”
The Basic STAR exemption is available only on the primary residence of homeowners with a household income under $500,000 and exempts the first $30,000 of the full value of a home from school taxes. Homeowners will only have to register once.
“It still allows the vast majority of people to get Basic STAR but obviously I think the feeling of the legislature was that if your income was greater than ($500,000) you may not necessarily need the Basic STAR exemption,” Wolham said.
