Scramble to accept early payments

Expiration of some deductions keeps municipal officials busy as property owners race clock

Municipal tax collectors on Wednesday were hustling to give taxpayers a chance to pay their tax bills before the end of 2017, when certain federal deductions will expire due to the recent tax reform approved by Congress and signed into law on Dec. 22 by President Donald Trump.

The new tax law caps the federal deduction for state and local taxes at $10,000 starting with tax year 2018. People with higher bills than that who pay their 2018 taxes before the end of this year will delay the impact of the new law by a year.

Property owners are being advised to check with their municipalities to see if their 2018 property tax bills can be paid early.

Ulster town Clerk/ Tax Collector Suzanne Reavy was among the local officials trying Wednesday to make it simple for people who are worried about the possible loss of deductions

for state and local property taxes toward their federal tax liability.

“The most important thing that people need to do is get their tax figure from us so they can pay the exact amount,” she said.

While no local officials contacted for this story felt qualified to discuss what

federal limits will be in effect for deductions after Jan. 1, they did note that, if a municipality considers a payment to have been made by Dec. 31, that payment will fall under current rules. However, because Jan. 1 is a federal holiday, meeting the deadline will vary from municipality to municipality.

Reavy said that, for town of Ulster taxpayers, bills paid in person during business hours through

Friday or postmarked by Dec. 31 will qualify as paid in 2017. She will also consider checks for the exact amount that are left in a drop box at Town Hall to have been paid in advance, even though they won’t be formally received until Jan. 2.

Kingston city Comptroller John Tuey on Wednesday was still working out details of how bills would be issued, but said he expects that any payments

made in person through Friday or received with a postmark no later than Dec. 31 will be considered a 2017 payment.

Tuey was reluctant to blame federal elected representatives, but said property owners should be given a fair opportunity to deduct their tax payments.

“It’s made it interesting, but we’ve been able to work out the logistics,” he said. “By the city taking a little bit of time to process every-

thing, I think we’ll be able to have a ... pretty smooth process for payments being able to be made.”

Saugerties town Tax Collector Julie Dunn said her office would be limited to taking payments from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, as well as accepting payments with postmarks that are Dec. 31 or earlier.

“I’m still trying to get the bills together, since we just got them from the county

and we hope to get them out Thursday,” she said.

“I can’t take payments until Dec. 28 because that’s what date Gov. (Andrew) Cuomo put on the executive order,” Dunn said. “People have tried to come in and pay.”

Dunn recommended that people whose tax payments are made through an escrow account check with their lending institution to determine how to make an early payment.