Permits senior citizens whose spouses are deceased to substitute a more recent income for purposes of determining eligibility for the enhanced STAR exemption

4 Co-sponsors

• Ruth Hassell-Thompson
• Timothy M. Kennedy
• Michael H. Ranzenhofer
• James L. Seward

BILL NUMBER:S2167

Title of bill

An act to amend the real property tax law, in relation to permitting senior citizens whose spouses are deceased to substitute a more recent year's income for purposes of determining eligibility for the enhanced exemption for school tax relief

Purpose

This amendment would enable widows/widowers to submit proof by April 30th to their local assessors' office informing them that they have experienced a drastic decrease in income due to the loss of a spouse. If information is valid, the assessor would base the widowers STAR exemption on their most recent income tax form rather than the tax form from two years prior.

Justification

To validate star eligibility, an assessor goes back two years on a persons income tax form. The reason being that the STAR dead- line is March 1st, and most people do not have their most current taxes complete and filed until the April 15th Federal tax deadline. So it is practical for assessors to base eligibility on the most recent filed state income tax forms, which are the forms from two years prior to the current year. However, this practice for establishing eligibility means that a widow or widower who has seen their income cut dramatically with the loss of a spouse could conceivably not see an increase in star bene- fit for more than three years.

Legislative history

2007-08: S.5363 2009-10: S.1602 2011-12: S.658

Fiscal implications

Undetermined.

Effective date

Immediately.