Emergency Measure for the Correction of 842 School Property Tax Bills

In a previous Tax Tracker, Will Meyer spotlighted the emerging issue of Nassau County homeowners who were shocked to learn of egregious increases in their October school tax bills earlier this month.

On Monday, the Nassau County Legislature unanimously approved an emergency measure for the correction of 842 school property tax bills. The bills were issued on the basis of faulty calculations attributed to “human error” by the Nassau County Department of Assessment. Taxpayers who overpay on an erroneous bill before November 10th can be refunded immediately by their respective tax receiver.

According to the County, the mistakes occurred after assessment officials failed to correctly apply the TPP exemption for the 842 properties. The TPP exemption delays large tax hikes stemming from the much-publicized 2020/21 county-wide reassessment, by phasing in valuation increases over a five-year period. County officials were reducing assessments to reflect demolition or fire damage to the 842 homes; however, the adjustments were entered in the wrong column on the assessment roll where the TPP tax break calculation should be. As a result, the TPP exemption was virtually eliminated for the affected homeowners causing the increased tax bills.

As a result of the errors, Nassau County is projected to incur approximately $1.55 million in refunds in accordance with the County Guarantee, which obligates the County to absorb any shortfalls to school district tax levies resulting from the corrected tax bills.

Read more about the correction of the school tax errors in Newsday Media Group here: Nassau lawmakers approve tax refunds due to error in assessment billing to 842 homes

Thank you to Farrell Fritz partner Michael P. Guerriero for this week’s Tax Tracker post.