A property tax in New York state can be levied by villages, cities, towns, counties and special districts, such as fire prevention districts. It is also levied separately by school districts, of which there are more than 700.
It starts with local governments assigning an annual assessed value to each piece, or parcel, of real estate. That assessment can be governed by the village or city, or by the town, and it can be the property’s market value or some uniformly applied fraction of that value.
Calculating your property tax, which, ideally, is based on the true market value of your property, is relatively simple.
Multiply the tax rate established by your governing town, village, city, school district and county by the assessed value of your property.
So let’s say the tax rate established by the town is $50 per $1,000 of assessed value, and your home is assessed at $100,000. Multiply 50 by 100 to get your tax — $5,000.
Do the same for the tax rate established by your school district, village and county, then add them together to get your tax total.
Things get a little more complicated if you get property tax exemptions, such as the STAR exemption, which exclude some of the assessed value of a property from taxation.
In that case, you multiply the tax rate by assessed value after the exemption.
There are hundreds of exemptions available in New York state, although they vary widely by city and town. So contact your municipal government for a list of available exemptions.
— Chris Churchill