Property tax relief credit

Updated information on STAR and property tax relief credit checks

Note: The Property tax relief credit expired after 2019.

If you expect to receive a STAR credit check and have not yet received it, follow the steps below.

Review your school property tax bill. (See examples.) If you received the STAR exemption on your bill, there is no further STAR or property tax relief benefit to receive this year. You are not eligible for the STAR credit in any year you receive a STAR exemption.
See the STAR Check Delivery Schedule. If you did not receive the STAR exemption on your school tax bill, check the delivery schedule and follow any instructions provided.

To learn more about the STAR and former property tax relief credit programs? See our question and answer.

Preparing your income tax return?

To verify if you received a property tax credit check, use our Property Tax Credit Lookup.
If you itemize your deductions or are a Yonkers resident, see How to report your property tax credits.

The property tax relief credit directly reduced your property tax burden if you were a qualifying homeowner. The amount of the credit was a percentage of your STAR savings.

The property tax relief credit has expired. However, if you were eligible for the credit in 2018, or 2019, but believe you did not receive it:

Verify you did not receive a check using our Property Tax Credit Lookup.
Once you confirm you did not receive a check, contact our Property Tax Information Center for assistance.

Eligibility

To be eligible, in a prior year, you must have:

lived in a school district that complied with the New York State property tax cap, (see if yours complied: School district compliance with the property tax cap.)
been eligible for either the Basic or Enhanced STAR exemption or credit,
had an income of $275,000 or less, and
paid school property taxes for the applicable year.

Definition of income for property tax relief

For the property tax relief credit, income is defined as federal adjusted gross income (FAGI) from two years prior, modified so that:

the net amount of loss reported on Federal Schedule C, D, E or F doesn’t exceed $3,000;
the net amount of any other separate category of loss doesn’t exceed $3,000; and
the aggregate amount of all losses doesn’t exceed $15,000.

For example, for the 2019 property tax relief credit, income eligibility was based on the 2017 tax year.

New York City residents

New York City is not subject to the tax cap and therefore, city residents weren't eligible for this credit.

Property tax relief credit amounts

Basic STAR recipients

If you received Basic STAR and were eligible for the property tax relief credit, your credit amount was a certain percentage (determined by your income) of your Basic STAR savings.

Percentage of Basic STAR savings according to income
Income	2018 percentage of your Basic STAR savings	2019 percentage of your Basic STAR savings
$75,000 or less	60.0%	85.0%
between $75,000 and $150,000	42.5%	60.0%
between $150,000 and $200,000	25.0%	35.0%
between $200,000 and $275,000	7.5%	10.0%

Enhanced STAR recipients

If you’re receiving the Enhanced STAR exemption or credit, your income doesn’t impact the amount of your property tax relief credit. Your credit amount will be a set percentage of your Enhanced STAR savings for each of the following years:

2018—26%
2019—34%

Updated: April 21, 2021