New legislation will now require all homeowners receiving a Basic STAR exemption on their property taxes to register with the New York State Tax Dept. in order to receive the exemption in 2014 and subsequent years.
Homeowners will not have to register in order to receive their 2013 STAR exemptions.
Between September 16th and October 4th all Basic STAR recipients in Nassau and Suffolk County will be receiving a letter that will contain information on when and how to register. The letter will include a personalized code that homeowners will need to register online or over the phone. The registration process will simply require homeowners to provide some basic information to confirm their eligibility for the STAR program: You will be able to register online at: http://www.tax.ny.gov/pit/property/star13/.
You will need to provide the following information:
- The STAR code and confirm the property address.
- The names and Social Security numbers for all owners of the property and spouses.
- Confirm that the property is the primary residence of one of its owners (married couples with multiple residences may only claim one STAR exemption).
Here are a few key points to be aware of:
- The combined income of the owners and their spouses who reside at the property does not exceed $500,000.00
- That no resident owner receives a residency-based tax exemption from another state.
- This is a one-time process. Basic Star recipients will not need to re-register every year.
- Registration will continue to December 31, 2013.
- Senior citizens who receive the Enhanced STAR exemption are not affected by the new registration requirement and nothing will change for them.
This new initiative is to protect New Yorkers against the costs of inappropriate or fraudulent STAR exemptions. A recent State Comptroller’s report showed that taxpayers are being cheated out of tens of millions of dollars every year by individuals who are fraudulently obtaining STAR exemptions for their property.
Penalties for intentionally providing misinformation to an assessor will increase from $100 to as much as $2,500.00.