Tax Penalty Refunds and Property Assessments: What You Should Know

Good news for those who paid tax penalties due to a failure by the Post Office to deliver their tax bills last August. Governor Hochul signed a bill, that was passed by both the NYS Assembly and the NYS Senate to permit the Village to refund those penalties. The form to complete it is on the Village website here:

The Mayor says he expects it to take 4-6 weeks to process the requests and issue the refunds.

Property Taxes

In other news about property taxes, Village Assessor Victoria Sirota held a session with Village Trustees on October 8, 2024 to review how property taxes are calculated and to update the Board on her efforts to identify underassessed properties in the Village.

She began with an explanation of how the overall assessed value for the Village of Scarsdale is calculated, and then explained how individual properties are assessed. The taxable assessed value of all Village properties has steadily increased since 2017, going from $8,941,755 billion in in 2017 to $9,304,433 billion in 2024. To determine the share of the total county tax levy owed by Scarsdale, the Village is assigned an equalization rate.

Individual taxes are calculated by multiplying the assessed value of the property by the tax rate and dividing by 1,000. For instance in 2024, for a home valued at $1,400,000, taxes are calculated by multiplying the home value by the average tax rate (27.37) and dividing by 1,000 for a total of $38,318.

Under-assessed Properties

Sirota then explained the process her office is undertaking to identify under-assessed properties where renovations and upgrades may have been done without building permits.

Since the Village can only adjust assessments when closing out building permits or granting certificates of occupancy, that’s their only opportunity to inspect homes to ensure what’s built matches what is shown on the property record on the Village website.

Her office has been reviewing public information on properties and comparing those to the Village’s property records. Based on her analysis of sales, in 2024 they found 84 properties with discrepancies adding an average of $99,300 in assessed value to each.

She has identified the following extras that are often not noted on the property records:

-Additional living area from conversion of attached garages, porches or third stories
-Finished basements
-Finished spaces above detached garages which may serve as Accessory Dwelling Units
-Pool cabanas
-Additional bathrooms
-Changes in the house grade or condition
-Addition of patios and sports courts that were not in the plans
-Replacement of swimming pools
-Outdoor kitchens
-Installation of central air conditioning

Based on this work, she estimates that an additional $8,300,000 of value has been added that has not been accounted for this year. Since Scarsdale’s total tax bill is a fixed sum, if some are under-assessed then others are paying more than their fair share. Therefore the assessor is seeking to address these discrepancies to ensure fairness and equity.

At the conclusion of the meeting, the Village asked their attorney to investigate ways that the Village could address these inventory discrepancies with homeowners.