Exemption reporting for taxing jurisdictions

Section 495 of the Real Property Tax Law requires counties, cities, towns, villages, and school districts to attach to their tentative/preliminary budgets an exemption report. The measure is effective October 5, 2008, and applies to budgets for fiscal years commencing on and after that date.

These exemption reports provide taxpayers, policy makers, media, and the general public with greater transparency on property tax exemptions and their effect on overall property taxes.

Exemptions are reductions in property taxes granted to certain groups of property owners (such as nonprofits, seniors, or veterans) and are paid for by increases in property taxes on all other taxpayers (except for the STAR exemption, which is funded directly by New York State). The exemption reports show, for each type of exemption, how much of the local property tax base has been removed from taxation.

For more information, refer to the forms below.

RPTL—Section 495

§ 495. Exemption reports.

1. Whenever a county, city, town, village or school district is required to prepare an annual budget, the official required to prepare a tentative or preliminary version of that budget shall annex thereto an exemption report. This report shall be on a form prescribed by the state board and shall show how much of the total assessed value on the final assessment roll or rolls used in that budgetary process is exempt from taxation. This report shall list every type of exemption granted, identified by statutory authority, and shall show (a) the cumulative impact of each type of exemption expressed either as a dollar amount of assessed value or as a percentage of the total assessed value on the roll, (b) the cumulative amount expected to be received from recipients of each type of exemption as payments in lieu of taxes or other payments for municipal services, and (c) the cumulative impact of all exemptions granted. Exemptions that result in an impact of less than one percent may be aggregated as a single entry. In no case shall an individual exemption recipient be named in the report.

2. Notice of this report shall be included in any notice of the preparation of the budget otherwise required by law. The report shall be posted on any bulletin board maintained by the budgeting authority for public notices and on any website maintained by the budgeting authority. This report shall be annexed to any tentative or preliminary budget and shall become part of the final budget.

Contact

If you have questions contact your ORPTS customer service team or email Real.Property@tax.ny.gov.