08/03/2020 Assessment Community Weekly

Looking for the STAR Credit Eligible Report (Report #8)? Watch your email for an announcement in the upcoming days.

In the meantime, there’s plenty below to keep us all busy.

STAR Delinquency Report (Report #7) update

On Friday, we announced the availability of the STAR Delinquency Report in the Online Assessment Community. This is the first year that we’ve issued this report. It lists Basic STAR exemption recipients who are no longer eligible for the exemption because their property taxes are more than one year delinquent. For the details, see Friday’s announcement.

Note: When viewing the report on the webpage, it may display duplicate properties. We are working to fix this ASAP. In the meantime, when downloading the report, the duplicates will not appear. If you are looking for a specific property, you can search for it by last name and/or print key. For instructions to download STAR reports and bring them into Excel, see How to Access and Download STAR Reports.

New messages in STAR Reports

Beginning this week, when you run any of the STAR reports, you may receive this message:

ORPTS has run the report for the SWIS code and there is no data to display. If you receive this message, you do not need to take any action for the report.

In contrast, if ORPTS hasn’t run the report for your locality, you will receive this message:

The report you selected is not available for this SWIS code. Please check back; ORPTS will run the report at a future date.

Final Roll Corrections Report (Report #6) Update

Report #6 is now available for all localities with July 1 final roll dates, except for two municipalities that did not file rolls timely with ORPTS. For details see: Final Roll Corrections Report (Report #6) now available.

2021-2022 STAR forms now available

Now that we’ve passed the last taxable status date for 2020 rolls (Cities of Cortland and Utica), the forms below are available on our website for the 2021-2022 school year.

New form to submit 2020 good cause requests

In the past, to submit a request to extend the Enhanced STAR application deadline, seniors would submit the following to ORPTS:

Form RP-425-E
Form RP-425-IVP, and
if they didn’t file an income tax return for the appropriate year, Form RP-425-WKST.

Today we’re launching a new form to streamline the process. Form RP-425-GC, Application for Extension of 2020 Enhanced STAR Deadline, is now available on our website, along with new instructions.

Rather than completing two – or sometimes three – forms, seniors who miss the deadline can now complete this single form and submit it to ORPTS.

In addition to the information from Forms RP-425-E and RP-425-IVP, the form includes an income worksheet for those who don’t submit income tax returns.

Of course, we will accept the 2020 good cause requests that have already been submitted by seniors using Forms RP-425-E and RP-425-IVP.

For a one-stop-shop for the form, instructions, and other good cause information, bookmark Late Enhanced STAR applications due to good cause.

New online legal q and a’s

To assist you with the intricacies of assessment administration, we’re launching Legal Property Tax Questions – Asked and Answered. The new easy-to-browse content replaces the former Recently Asked Legal Questions webpage. It includes the questions and answers from that page, as well as four new questions. We will keep you informed as we add new q and a’s.

If you have a legal question, submit it to your municipal attorney or your ORPTS Customer Service Liaison. Our legal staff is available to provide assistance to municipal attorneys and ORPTS regional staff upon request.

Thank you to New Windsor Assessor J. Todd Wiley and the other members of the Real Property Tax Administration Committee (RPTAC) who encouraged us to look for new ways to share legal questions and answers with you!

Updated STAR exemption removal and renunciation webpage

To address the increasing numbers of homeowners who are switching to the STAR credit from the STAR exemption, we’ve rebranded the page formerly known as STAR exemption removal and renunciation.

The new page, Giving up a STAR exemption, still includes situations when a property owner must renounce a STAR exemption using Form RP-496, Application to Renounce Previously Granted Exemption(s). However, it now includes information for homeowners switching to the STAR credit from the STAR exemption. Those homeowners only need to register for the STAR credit and select the option to Make the Switch; they do not need to submit Form RP-496 as long as they are switching for the current year by December 31.

New judicial case

We’ve added Town of Niskayuna v Joll to Judicial cases.

Updated: January 29, 2021