When Rockland County District Attorney Thomas Zugibe revealed in February that an investigation uncovered numerous cases of homeowners illegally filing for the STAR property tax break program, he originally planned for his investigators to start making arrests this week.

Since Zugibe instituted an amnesty program allowing homeowners to come forward without facing criminal prosecution, he said that many of the offenders targeted by his office have come forward voluntarily to resolve their problems. As a result, Zugibe said today he is extending the STAR program amnesty.

Homeowners in Rockland County who have illegally obtained a STAR property tax break – leading to a reduction in the school tax bills – now have until April 15 to contact their town assessor’s office and make arrangements for restitution.

Zugibe said his office had about 20 property owners who were expected to be arrested if they did not take advantage of the amnesty. He said most of those individuals have come forward.

Zugibe also said that he received feedback from the community that word of the amnesty program had not reached some areas, with the two factors combined leading him to extend the amnesty.

An investigation of the state-backed STAR tax break program for property owners led to the discovery of more than 500 cases in Rockland County in which the tax breaks were illegally obtained. Investigators believe there may be thousands of additional cases in Rockland’s five towns.

During the past year, detectives in the Special Investigations Unit of the District Attorney’s Office uncovered more than $679,000 in improperly or fraudulently claimed STAR exemptions from 2012.

The probe was launched after a 2011 fire in Haverstraw, where a volunteer firefighter was nearly killed when be became trapped in an illegally divided home. In the aftermath of the fire, firefighters questioned whether the the property owner and illegally claimed a STAR tax exemption.

STAR is New York’s version of a homestead exemption or a property tax discount for an owner-occupied primary residence. The state provides homeowners with two levels of partial exemptions from school property taxes:

Basic STAR
Basic STAR is available for owner-occupied primary residences where the homeowners’ and their spouses’ income is $500,000 or less. Under the basic exemption, $30,000 is taken off the assessed value of the primary residence for the purposes of school taxes, which in many locations is the largest component of the property tax burden.

Enhanced STAR
Enhanced STAR provides an increased benefit for the primary residences of senior citizens (age 65 and older) with qualifying incomes. The Enhanced option exempts the first $63,300 of the full value of a home from school taxes as of 2013-14 school tax bills. This exemption is increased annually according to a cost-of-living adjustment.

To be eligible for Enhanced STAR, the combined income of all owners and their spouses must be $79,050 or less.

STAR exemptions apply only to school district taxes. They do not apply to property taxes for other purposes, such as county, town or city, except in New York City, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Yonkers, where city property taxes fund public schools.

Because STAR homeowners are taxed at the lower value, their bill is reduced, often by thousands of dollars. New York State makes up the difference to local school districts. The program costs about $2.66 billion annually.

A homeowner may have either a Basic or Enhanced STAR exemption, which is applied to a primary residence only. Not all of the owners must use the property as a primary residence, just the one applying for STAR. You can only have one primary residence.

As part of the STAR exemption crackdown, subpoenas were given to local assessors’ offices in Rockland’s five towns for STAR locations that were believed to be non-owner occupied. Additionally, the District Attorney’s Office received addresses that were the subject of building code and fire code complaints. As a result, 516 locations were preliminarily identified as being in violation of STAR qualifications with many more locations to be investigated.

Zugibe said software program used by the Town of Ramapo’s assessor offers the ability to cross-reference exemption locations with other municipal databases. With the help of this technology, more than 75 homeowners were identified during this process as living out of state or overseas, while illegally receiving the STAR exemption. A confirmation process is currently underway to positively corroborate these suspicions.

To correct a STAR application and make restitution, contact your local tax assessor’s office or visit www.tax.ny.gov for additional information.

(Source: Nanuet Patch)