N.Y. Tax Law § 171-w: State support for the local enforcement of past-due property taxes

§ 171-w. State support for the local enforcement of past-due property

taxes. 1. Legislative findings. The legislature finds that local

governments have limited means to enforce the collection of past-due

property taxes. The legislature further finds that it is appropriate for

the state to support the local enforcement of past-due property taxes by

authorizing the commissioner to administer a program to disallow STAR

credits and exemptions to delinquent property owners based on

information reported to him or her by municipal officials.

2. Definitions. For the purposes of this section:

(a) "Delinquent property owner" means a STAR recipient whose primary

residence is subject to past-due property taxes.

(b) "Past-due property taxes" means property taxes that have been

levied upon a property owner's primary residence that remain unpaid one

year after the last date on which they could have been paid without

interest, or where such taxes are payable in installments, those taxes

that remain unpaid one year after the last date on which the final

installment could have been paid without interest.

(c) "STAR credit" means the basic STAR personal income tax credit

authorized by subsection (eee) of section six hundred six of this

chapter.

(d) "STAR exemption" means the basic STAR exemption from real property

taxation authorized by section four hundred twenty-five of the real

property tax law.

(e) "STAR recipient" means a property owner who is registered to

receive the STAR credit in relation to his or her primary residence, or

whose primary residence is receiving the STAR exemption.

3. STAR tax payment requirement; generally. Notwithstanding any

provision of law to the contrary, a property owner whose primary

residence is subject to past-due property taxes shall not be allowed to

receive a STAR credit or STAR exemption unless the past-due property

taxes are paid in full on or before a date specified by the

commissioner.

4. Commissioner's authority. The commissioner is hereby authorized to

develop a program to support the local enforcement of past-due property

taxes by disallowing STAR credits and STAR exemptions to delinquent

property owners. The commissioner shall establish procedures for the

administration of this program, which shall include the following

provisions:

(a) The procedures by which municipal officials shall report past-due

property taxes and property tax payments to the department.

(b) The procedures by which the department shall notify delinquent

property owners of the impending disallowance of their STAR credits or

exemptions due to past-due property taxes.

(c) The date by which delinquent property owners must pay their

past-due property taxes in full in order to avoid disallowance of their

STAR credits or exemptions.

(d) The procedures by which the commissioner shall disallow STAR

credits and notify assessors of the disallowance of STAR exemptions if

past-due property taxes are not paid in full by the specified date.

(e) Such other procedures as the commissioner shall deem necessary to

carry out the provisions of this section.

5. Municipal reports. The commissioner's procedures regarding

municipal reporting shall be subject to the following provisions:

(a) The commissioner may request and shall be entitled to receive from

any municipal corporation of the state, or any agency or official

thereof, such data as the commissioner deems necessary to effectuate the

purposes of this section. Such information shall be submitted to the

department at such time and in such manner as the commissioner may

direct.

(b) In lieu of requiring municipal officials to submit their reports

directly to the department, the commissioner may, in his or her

discretion, require that such reports be submitted to the county

director of real property tax services, who shall integrate the reports

into a single file and submit it to the department at such time and in

such manner as the commissioner may direct. Provided, that where the

commissioner institutes such a procedure, he or she may exclude cities

with one hundred twenty-five thousand inhabitants or more, so that

information about past-due property taxes and property tax payments in

such a city shall be reported directly to the department by a designated

city official at such time and in such manner as the commissioner may

direct.

(c) Reports and other records prepared pursuant to this section shall

not be subject to the provisions of article six of the public officers

law.

6. Notification of delinquent property owners. The commissioner's

procedures regarding the notification of delinquent property owners

shall be subject to the following provisions:

(a) The department shall notify a delinquent property owner by regular

mail at least thirty days prior to the date by which his or her past-due

property taxes must be paid in full in order to avoid disallowance of

his or her STAR credit or exemption.

(b) Such notice shall include a statement that the property owner's

STAR credit or exemption will be disallowed unless his or her past-due

property taxes are paid in full by the date specified in the notice.

(c) To the extent practicable, such notice shall provide contact

information for the local official or officials to whom the past-due

property taxes may be paid.

(d) Such notice shall further state that the property owner's right to

protest the disallowance of the STAR credit or exemption is limited to

raising issues that constitute a "mistake of fact" as defined in

subdivision nine of this section.

(e) Such notice may include such other information as the commissioner

may deem necessary.

7. Timely payment of past-due property taxes. If a delinquent property

owner pays his or her past-due property taxes in full on or before the

date specified in such notice, the official receiving such payment shall

so notify the department at such time and in such manner as prescribed

by the commissioner. The property owner shall then be permitted to

receive the STAR credit or exemption that would have been disallowed if

timely payment had not been made. However, if the department does not

learn of the payment until after it has already directed an assessor to

deny a STAR exemption to a delinquent property owner, then in lieu of

directing the exemption to be restored, the department may remit to the

property owner payment in an amount that will reimburse the property

owner for the increase in his or her school tax bill that is directly

attributable to the lost STAR exemption.

8. Failure to make timely payment. (a) If the past-due taxes are not

paid on or before the date specified in the notice that had been sent to

the delinquent property owner, his or her STAR credit or STAR exemption

shall be disallowed in accordance with the procedures established by the

commissioner.

(b) The property owner shall not be eligible to participate in the

STAR program again as long as the property is subject to past-due

property taxes.

(c) Upon payment of the past-due property taxes in full, the official

receiving such payment shall notify the department at such time and in

such manner as may be prescribed by the commissioner. The commissioner

shall then proceed as follows:

(i) If the property owner had previously been receiving the STAR

credit, the commissioner shall allow the property owner to resume his or

her participation in the STAR credit program on a prospective basis, if

otherwise eligible, effective with the first taxable year commencing

after such payment.

(ii) If the property owner had previously been receiving the STAR

exemption, the commissioner shall allow the property owner to

participate in the STAR credit program on a prospective basis, if

otherwise eligible, effective with the first taxable year commencing

after such payment. The property owner shall not be allowed back into

the STAR exemption program.

(iii) The commissioner shall, when making the first advanced payment

of a STAR credit to the property taxpayer after payment of the past-due

property taxes in full, also pay to such property taxpayer the value of

the STAR exemptions or STAR credits that were disallowed pursuant to

paragraph a of this subdivision.

9. Mistake of fact. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a

disallowance of a STAR credit or STAR exemption pursuant to this section

may only be challenged before the department on the grounds of a mistake

of fact as defined in this subdivision. The taxpayer will have no right

to commence a court action, administrative proceeding or any other form

of legal recourse against an assessor, county director of real property

tax services or other local official regarding such disallowance. For

the purposes of this subdivision, "mistake of fact" is limited to claims

that: (i) the individual notified is not the taxpayer at issue; or (ii)

the past-due property taxes were satisfied before the date specified in

the notice described in subdivision six of this section. However,

nothing in this subdivision is intended to limit a taxpayer from seeking

relief from joint and several liability pursuant to section six hundred

fifty-four of this chapter to the extent that he or she is eligible

pursuant to that subdivision or establishing to the department that the

enforcement of the underlying property taxes has been stayed by the

filing of a petition pursuant to the Bankruptcy Code of 1978 (Title

Eleven of the United States Code).

10. Assessors. (a) Notwithstanding any provision of law to the

contrary, the department may disclose to assessors such information as

the commissioner deems necessary to ensure that the STAR exemptions of

delinquent property owners are disallowed as required by this section.

(b) Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, an assessor

shall be authorized and directed to deny a STAR exemption to a

delinquent property owner upon being directed by the department to do

so. If an assessor should receive such a directive after the applicable

assessment roll has been filed, the assessor or other official having

custody and control of that roll shall be authorized and directed to

remove such exemption from such roll prior to the levy of school taxes,

without regard to the provisions of title three of article five of the

real property tax law or any comparable laws governing the correction of

administrative errors on assessment rolls and tax rolls.

11. Recovery of STAR benefits in certain cases. The commissioner may

establish procedures to be followed in cases where a STAR credit or

exemption was inadvertently or erroneously provided to a delinquent

property owner who was sent the notice required by subdivision six of

this section, and whose past-due property taxes were not paid in full by

the date specified in the notice. Such procedures shall include, but not

be limited to, (a) applying the improperly received STAR credit or

exemption as an offset against future STAR credits or against other

personal income tax credits or personal income tax refunds to which the

delinquent property owner would otherwise be entitled, and (b) pursuing

any of the other remedies that are available to enforce a personal

income tax debt under article twenty-two of this chapter.

(12) Notwithstanding any provision of this section to the contrary,

the commissioner shall extend the date by which any delinquent property

owner shall be required to pay his or her past-due property taxes in

full in order to receive STAR credits or STAR exemptions, until after

the end of the COVID-19 state disaster emergency declared by executive

order number two hundred two and any further amendments or modifications

thereto, and as may be further extended pursuant to section twenty-eight

of the executive law. The department shall notify all delinquent

property owners of such extension.