11/24/2025 Assessment Community Weekly
New STAR income request letters hitting mailboxes
Beginning this month, we’ll be mailing our new RP-5300-WSC to impacted STAR exemption recipients across the state. We are not able to confirm they meet the income requirements for a STAR benefit based on the information we have on file. Recipients of this letter should follow the instructions to provide their income information using the Homeowner Benefit Portal or our online STAR Income Worksheet.
If you are contacted by a property owner about the RP-5300-WSC, please direct them to our STAR Resource Center featuring our new Respond to a STAR letter page. This page is a new resource and as we continue to mail 2026 STAR letters, we'll add them to this page.
You may also contact the Assessor and County Director Hotline by phone at 518-457-9053 or via email at Assessor.hotline@tax.ny.gov for additional assistance. Please remember, assessor hotline resources are for assessors and county directors and should not be shared with taxpayers.
Among the provisions to simplify the STAR program in the 2025-2026 Enacted State Budget, is a provision to simplify the income calculation for Enhanced STAR. Beginning in 2026, Enhanced STAR income includes the income of all resident owners and their spouses who reside at the property, and no longer includes the income of non-resident owners.
Reminder: 2025 STAR credits and STAR exemption savings
After we issue STAR credits, we update the STAR credit and exemption savings amounts to make it easy to compare the two benefits.
We will update the values for Nassau and Suffolk Counties later in the year after they issue their school tax bills.
If you’re wondering why we don’t publish this data earlier in the year when homeowners would have a chance to switch to the STAR credit, it’s because we rely on school tax rates to calculate STAR credits and STAR exemption savings. The final rates are not available until just before school tax bills are issued.
Judicial cases
New Judicial cases:
- Matter of First United Methodist Church in Flushing v Assessor, Town of Callicoon
- Matter of Maidenbaum & Sternberg, LLP v New York State Dept. of Taxation & Fin.
- Matter of 64-11 QB Owner, LLC v Niblack
- Matter of NY EZ Prop. Holdings, LLC v Niblack
- Matter of Panagopoulos v Niblack
- Matter of Wavebrook Assoc. v Niblack