Reimbursement answers

• Reimbursement availability
• Voucher submissions
• Necessary and reasonable expenses
• Payment processing

Reimbursement availability

Basic and Continuing Education reimbursement is available to assessors and county directors

Reimbursement is available to appointed and sole elected assessors, members of elected boards of assessors, and county directors of real property tax services for approved educational courses, seminars, self-study examinations and conferences. Necessary and reasonable expenses for successfully completed training used to fulfill a basic or continuing education requirement may be reimbursed according to the State guidelines. (Note: Village assessors and assessors in Albany, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Yonkers, and Nassau County are excluded. New York City Assessors are subject to provisions in the 20 NYCRR 8188 (8188-8) and should contact ORPTS for prior approval of training expenses.)

Reaching the Continuing Education (CE) maximum impacts your eligibility for reimbursement

Once you have reached your CE credit maximum, you will not be eligible for reimbursement for training courses or seminars until the beginning of a new continuing education year on October 1. Check your Continuing Education Status Report for your specific CE credit eligibility information.

Excluding Continuing Education credit on the attendance roster means you will not be reimbursed for the training

The column on the far right-hand side of the standardized attendance sign-in sheet includes a column called "Please initial if you do not want CE Credit/Reimbursement." You may use this column to indicate that you do not want continuing education credit or reimbursement. You are only eligible for reimbursement for training sessions that are credited towards your education requirement. If you choose to initial the column on the sign-in sheet, you are requesting that continuing education credit be "excluded" (not counted) toward your annual accumulation of credit. In that case, we will honor your request and you will not be reimbursed.

Reimbursement is based on continuing education credit availability

Assessors and county directors must have continuing education credit available to use, in order to receive credit and reimbursement for an approved course, conference or seminar. You must attain your basic certification before you will be eligible for reimbursement of continuing education course expenses.

Advance approval is required for Continuing Education credit for supplemental training

Supplemental training such as supervision, electronic data processing, budgeting and administration which would enhance the ability of assessors and county directors to perform the duties of their positions, may be eligible for continuing education credit. Prior to attending, submit an Application for Continuing Education Review "fill-in form" RP-3042 to Educational Services for review and approval. The form is not intended to be used for training sessions or conferences sponsored by ORPTS, the New York State Assessors Association or the Association of Real Property Tax Directors.

Voucher submissions

Voucher submission deadline

Reimbursement claims must be submitted no later than 30 days following the completion of training for all courses to be eligible for reimbursement.

If the training was sponsored by the Office of Real Property Tax Services (ORPTS), you do not need to wait for a course or exam result to be sent to you before submitting your voucher. If you are not eligible for reimbursement, your voucher and original receipts will be returned to you with a letter of explanation.

Include all necessary documents when submitting voucher requests.

If you have completed a course that was not sponsored by ORPTS, you must submit a copy of your certificate of completion. You also need to submit the original receipts for lodging, tuition, textbooks, meals, and parking. Effective May 1, 2015 receipts are also required for expenses such as tolls, local bus fares, subway tokens, etc.  If you have questions as to what should be included with your vouchers, please contact Educational Services.

Travel reimbursement claim by a non-employee

Form AC3257-S, Claim for Travel Reimbursement by a Non-Employee is always required to be completed when filing for assessor training reimbursement.

If you used a personal car to attend the training, you will also need to complete Form AC160-S, Statement of Automobile Travel. Refer to the reimbursement instructions for details on how to complete each form. ORPTS recommends that your local government pay all the initial costs for required training, and then in turn the local government can be reimbursed for all eligible expenses.

Reimbursement forms and instructions

Forms and instructions can be found at Voucher packet. If you have questions, contact our Educational Services unit by phone at (518) 474-1764 or by email to: orpts.edservices@tax.ny.gov.

Mileage rates

Mileage rates are based on the standard mileage allowance established by the Internal Revenue Service.

In order to claim mileage, you must include Form AC160-S, Statement of Automobile Travel in addition to the Travel and Standard vouchers. Mileage rates may change. For current rate information, visit Office of the State Comptroller—Travel mileage rates.

NYS sales tax is not reimbursable

Sales tax paid on lodging expenses is not reimbursable. A Form ST-129, New York State and Local Sales and Use Tax Exemption Certificate. is included in the Voucher packet. It is also available from your city, town or county clerk's office.

Form ST-129, New York State and Local Sales and Use Tax Exemption Certificate must be used when you register at your hotel or motel. When you submit this certificate to the hotel or motel, you should not be charged sales tax. Be sure to review your receipt carefully before leaving to verify that sales tax has not been included in your bill. If you did not submit Form ST-129 and sales tax is added to your lodging receipt, be sure you do not include the sales tax in the dollar amount requested for lodging reimbursement.

Failing the course exam or not completing a course results in ineligibility for reimbursement

If you fail a basic or continuing education course, your reimbursement will be denied. You must successfully complete the course in order to be eligible for reimbursement. You must satisfy all of the course sponsor's attendance requirements in order to ensure you will receive CE credit and reimbursement. You cannot receive partial credit, or reimbursement, for any training session you do not complete.

Expenses for commercial airfare are not typically approved for reimbursement

If there are extenuating circumstances for choosing this mode of transportation, please submit a written request to Educational Services four weeks prior to your travel, detailing the reasons and demonstrating how the use of air transportation will result in an overall savings to the State of New York.

Necessary and reasonable expenses

Overnight expenses

If you have successfully completed an approved course which is used to fulfill a training requirement and your official station is 50 miles or more from the training site and the component is not offered closer than 50 miles from your official station, you may be eligible for reimbursement of overnight expenses. Lodging expenses, for the receipted amount, can be approved up to the current maximum overnight rate for the county in which the training is held. You should refer to the Voucher packet for the most current mileage, lodging and meal rate information.

Approved overnight status and overnight meals

Approved overnight status indicates that overnight meals are a covered expense. When you are traveling in approved overnight status, your lodging receipt serves a double purpose. It serves as your lodging accommodation receipt, and also entitles you to claim the daily breakfast and dinner maximum amounts without any additional meal receipts. Overnight meals begin with dinner on the first night of your approved overnight stay and end with breakfast on the day you sign out of your overnight accommodations. Meal rates vary by county, and are available in the Voucher packet . Be sure to use the correct meal rate for the county where the training was held. Incidental expenses such as tips are already included in the per diem allowances for meals, and therefore are not reimbursed separately. There is no reimbursement for lunch.

Receipts

Receipts are required when using the rates schedule. You need to submit the original receipts for lodging, tuition, textbooks and parking. Receipts are also required for any incidental expenses such as tolls, local bus fares, etc.  If you have questions as to what should be included with your vouchers, please contact Educational Services.

Missing lodging receipt

When original receipts for lodging are unavailable, reimbursement for lodging, meals, and incidental expenses will be allowed on a per diem basis. You must indicate on your travel voucher that you are using "Method 1". The per diem reimbursement allowed would be as follows:

Payment processing

Basic certification vouchers

Basic certification vouchers will be processed as they are received. You must file for reimbursement no later than 30 days following the completion of the course. Basic training vouchers will be paid before continuing education vouchers are paid.

Vouchers for continuing education will be held until the end of the submission deadline for each period and will then be paid with available funds for that period.

Assuming that your vouchers are completed correctly and you have included all of the necessary receipts, you can usually expect to receive payment after the end of the Training Period. The continuing education reimbursements may be prorated, based on the remaining allotment for the filing period. If proration is necessary, a percentage of each voucher will be paid.

• 1st Training Period is April 1 to July 31
• 2nd Training Period is August 1 to November 30
• 3rd Training Period is December 1 to March 31

The training period close out will occur 30 days after the last training date in the period.

Reimbursement payments and the income tax return.

If you receive more than $600 in reimbursement in a calendar year, a 1099 Miscellaneous Form will automatically be issued to you by the Office of the State Comptroller. This amount will have to be reported on your income tax return for the appropriate tax year. In order to avoid a 1099 Form being issued to you, we recommend that your local government pay all the initial costs for required training, and then in turn the local government can be reimbursed for all eligible expenses. If any miscellaneous training expenses are paid by the individual (i.e. mileage), expenses can be reimbursed back to the individual by the local government or the individual can be reimbursed directly by submitting a separate set of vouchers for those eligible expenses. Expenses paid by the local government will not be reimbursed to an individual.