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Thousands of New Yorkers Are Missing Out on an Easy Tax Credit

Thousands of New Yorkers Are Missing Out on an Easy Tax Credit

Thousands of residents across New York City and New York State are missing out on an easy tax credit.

The School Tax Relief (STAR) program provides property tax relief to eligible New York State homeowners. The official website for the program notes that there are two ways in which taxpayers can receive their rebate:

STAR credit check. If you are registered for the STAR credit, the Tax Department will send you a STAR check in the mail each year. You can use the check to pay your school taxes. You can receive the STAR credit if you own your home and it's your primary residence and the combined income of the owners and the owners’ spouses is $500,000 or less.

STAR exemption: a reduction on your school tax bill. If you’ve been receiving the STAR exemption since 2015, you can continue to receive it for the same primary residence. As long as you remain eligible, you’ll see a reduction on your school tax bill for the amount of your STAR exemption. Note: The STAR exemption is no longer available to new homeowners.

Now, Syracuse.com has explained how thousands of homeowners across the state are missing out on receiving their entire STAR credit. 

The website notes that it is primarily senior citizens who are being impacted by using the old system for Enhanced STAR -- especially for seniors -- or Basic Star in 2021. 

The article shares that older homeowners "in the towns of Cicero, Clay, Geddes and Salina are losing about $100 a year by sticking with the old system, state tax records show."

In 2019, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo cautioned that this issue was coming, specifically for those who have resided in their current homes for over seven years. 

In a bid to nip the problem in the bud, Syracuse.com shared that "Cuomo proposed a change in the state budget that year that he hoped would encourage people to move from the old local system to the new state system. The state created a financial penalty for sticking with the old system. And it will only get worse as school tax rates increase."

Seniors over 65 who make under $92,000 a year stand to get the most money back from the state, thanks to the Enhanced STAR program. 

At this time, even with Cuomo's penalty, 2.2 million New Yorkers use the original system. About 771,000 people have switched to the new model. Only 79,187 seniors are using the new system, per information Syracuse.com obtained from the New York tax department.

The issue is that the old system is "frozen" in 2019 -- New Yorkers who use that filing system will never see their STAR credit increase from what it was in that year. 

This means they stand to lose thousands of dollars over the next decade or so. 

If you want to make sure you or your older loved ones are signed up with the new STAR system, visit the program's website or call 518-457-2036.

Although this year's deadline to switch has passed, you can always think ahead to next year. Look here for the deadline in each municipality in New York State.

Have you started using the new STAR system yet?

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Rebekah Barton

Rebekah Barton

Rebekah's search engine optimization career began completely by accident as a college student. Over the course of her career so far, she has "grown up" with the SEO industry, from writing content while juggling classes to managing her own teams of writers and overseeing SEO strategy in subsequent roles. She is excited to bring her passion for high-quality content to CountingWorks, Inc.

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