Published: October 15, 2008 02:43 am            

STATE: STAR rebate checks in the mail

The New York state tax department began mailing STAR Rebate checks or applications to Niagara County homeowners last week.

The rebates, cash returns to property owners who pay school tax, were authorized earlier this year by the state Legislature. They’re like the rebate checks that went out to homeowners last year about this time, and are a tax offset in addition to the conventional STAR program, which allows homeowners to deduct a portion of assessed property value from taxable value for purposes of figuring school property tax.

Rebate amounts are based on property owners’ income in 2006, the school district in which the owner resides and age. Homeowners and spouses’ combined income determines eligibility.

Homeowners with income up to $90,000 in 2006 will receive the biggest rebates; smaller rebates go to homeowners in the over $90,000 up to $150,000 income bracket; and smaller rebates still — about half the amount of the lowest-income rebates — go to homeowners in the $150,000 to $250,000 income range.

Homeowners with income over $250,000 don’t get a rebate at all.

Senior citizen homeowners signed up for the Enhanced STAR program will receive a larger-than-basic rebate.

The precise amount of rebate depends on the homeowner’s resident school district and township. In the Lockport City School District, for example, a Pendleton homeowner in the up-to-$90,000 income range will get a rebate check for $485.36, while a Cambria homeowner in the same income range gets a check for $486.67, a City of Lockport homeowner gets $460.05 and a Town of Lockport homeowner gets $430.10.

Senior rebates roughly range from $475 to $537, depending on the township. In all municipalities, the senior rebate is about $50 more.

Unlike last year, most homeowners won’t have to fill out a form in order to receive the rebate check. Unless the homeowner moved in the past year, or did not apply last year, the check should come automatically, the state Web site said.

Homeowners who did move or did not apply in 2007 should receive a one-page application in the mail by the end of this month. If not, applications are available on the state taxation and finance Web site, www.tax.state.ny.us.

According to rebate tables accessed from state Sen. George Maziarz’s Web site (www.senatormaziarz.com), Newfane school taxpayers will receive the largest rebates among property owners in the six school districts of eastern Niagara County. Newfane’s school tax rate also is the highest among the six. The Lockport district has the second-highest school tax rate, and homeowners will get the second-largest sets of rebates.

Unlike last year’s rebate program, the state tax department said, 2008 rebates are subject to “offset” for debts owed to state agencies, the Internal Revenue Service and certain other states.

        

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