Bill Text: NY A04984 | 2025-2026 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Shifts the conducting of the income verification process for the purposes of the senior citizen tax exemption from municipalities to the department of taxation and finance.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2025-02-10 - referred to aging [A04984 Detail]

Download: New_York-2025-A04984-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          4984

                               2025-2026 Regular Sessions

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                    February 10, 2025
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  M.  of  A.  BUTTENSCHON -- read once and referred to the
          Committee on Aging

        AN ACT to amend the real property tax law, in relation to requiring  the
          state  to  handle  the income verification process for the purposes of
          the senior citizen tax exemption

          The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and  Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section  1. Subdivision 5 of section 467 of the real property tax law,
     2  as amended by section 4 of part K of chapter 59 of the laws of 2023,  is
     3  amended to read as follows:
     4    5.  (a)  Application  for such exemption must be made by the owner, or
     5  all of the owners of the property, on forms prescribed  by  the  commis-
     6  sioner  to be furnished by the appropriate assessing authority and shall
     7  furnish the information and  be  executed  in  the  manner  required  or
     8  prescribed  in  such forms, and shall be filed in such assessor's office
     9  on or before the appropriate taxable status  date.  Notwithstanding  any
    10  other  provision of law, at the option of the municipal corporation, any
    11  person otherwise qualifying under this section shall not be  denied  the
    12  exemption  under this section if such person becomes sixty-five years of
    13  age after the appropriate taxable status date and on or before  December
    14  thirty-first of the same year.
    15    (b)  Effective  with  applications for such exemption, the application
    16  form shall indicate that all owners of  the  property  and  any  owners'
    17  spouses  residing  on  the  premises  must have their income eligibility
    18  verified annually by the department  and  must  furnish  their  taxpayer
    19  identification  numbers  in order to facilitate matching with records of
    20  the department.  The income eligibility of such persons shall  be  veri-
    21  fied  annually  by the department, and the assessing authority shall not
    22  request  income  documentation  from  them.  All  applicants  for   such
    23  exemption and all assessing authorities shall be required to participate
    24  in  this  program,  known  as  the senior citizen property tax exemption

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD09140-01-5
        A. 4984                             2

     1  income verification program. The commissioner may, in  such  commission-
     2  er's  discretion  and  in  conjunction  with  the  appropriate assessing
     3  authority, extend on an individual basis and as necessary the enrollment
     4  period  of the senior citizen property tax exemption income verification
     5  program for property owners who failed to  enroll  in  sufficient  time.
     6  Where appropriate, the commissioner, in conjunction with the appropriate
     7  assessing  authority,  is further authorized to remit directly to such a
     8  property owner a payment in an amount equal to  the  difference  between
     9  the  tax bill that the property owner actually received and the tax bill
    10  that the property owner would have  received  had  such  property  owner
    11  enrolled in a timely manner.
    12    (c)  Any  information  or  documentation  submitted by an applicant in
    13  connection with applications for or renewal of an  exemption  authorized
    14  under paragraph (a) of subdivision one of this section to verify income,
    15  shall be deemed confidential, and the assessor, any municipal officer or
    16  municipal  employees shall be prohibited from disclosing any such infor-
    17  mation, except for any disclosure necessary in the performance of  their
    18  official duties.
    19    § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.