If you haven’t already, it’s time to start watching your mailbox for your STAR property tax credit check.
The state Department of Taxation and Finance has a tool that lets you look up whether checks have started mailing to your municipality. You can find it online and search for every school district and town in Onondaga County and elsewhere.
In the city of Syracuse, for example, the tool states checks have already been issued. If you didn’t get it, and you’re eligible, the department says to call 518-457-2036.
In other locations in Onondaga County, checks haven’t started going out yet. In the towns of DeWitt and Cicero, for example, residents can expect them between late August and mid-September if they live in the Jamesville-DeWitt or North Syracuse school districts.
STAR stands for School Tax Relief program. It was originally a reduction in the property tax bill homeowners paid to the school district where they lived. But in recent years the state has been moving to turn STAR into a credit on each eligible homeowner’s income tax.
That means instead of a break up front, before your taxes are even paid, you have to wait for a check from the state to come to get the benefit.
The Basic STAR program exempts the first $30,000 of the full value of a home from school property taxes for owner-occupied, primary residences. The income limit for the program is $500,000.
Enhanced STAR is an extra benefit for seniors age 65 and older with incomes up to $98,700 or less for the 2024-2025 school year. It exempts the first $84,000 of the full value of a home from school property taxes for the 2024-2025 school year.
The STAR benefit applies only to school district taxes. It doesn’t apply to county, town, or city taxes, except in the cities of New York, Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers, and Syracuse, the tax department said.
In those five cities, the exemption is applied partly to city taxes and partly to school taxes.