City to offer deferment of scheduled tax payments
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. » The City of Saratoga Springs adopted a new local law to defer scheduled payments of taxes during the COVID-19 emergency.
The Saratoga Springs City Council voted at a meeting on Tuesday evening to adopt this law allowing citizens to defer payment of property taxes.
“The COVID-19 emergency has caused substantial and burdensome economic difficulties for many millions of Americans,” the law states. “It is right and proper for each local government, in its capacity as a taxing authority, to give serious consideration to methods by which citizens may be offered more time to pay their taxes.”
The intent of this local law is to provide city taxpayers with emergency relief by allowing additional time for the payment of property taxes as recently permitted by the New York State Legislature and the governor of the State of New York.
Earlier this year Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law Chapter 389 of the Laws of 2020, creating a new Article 19-A of the Real Property Tax Law that al
lows municipalities, while the COVID-19 emergency declared by Executive Order No. 202 of 2020 is in effect, to adopt a local law to defer payment of property taxes and special ad valorem taxes for periods not to exceed 120 days past the original payment due date, or to separate tax payments due into as many installment payments as the local legislative body shall determine necessary, for a period not to exceed 120 days past the original due date.
As the City of Saratoga Springs already offered installment payments, the new action taken Tuesday addressed deferments, allowing 60-day deferment on the first three installment payment dates of 2021.
Each municipality is required to specify the new dates when payments will be due. The City Council of the City of Saratoga Springs established that the following tax payments shall be deferred to the due dates indicated:
• Property taxes due on March 1, 2021 shall be due no later than May 1, 2021.
• Property taxes due on June 1, 2021 shall be due no later than Aug. 1, 2021.
• Property taxes due on Sept. 1, 2021 shall be due no later than Nov. 1, 2021.
After each deadline, the penalty, as set by the city charter, will be assessed at 9%on any unpaid installments. Every month after, 1.5% will be added until it caps at 15%.
The 2.25% discount that the city offers to those who pay all four installments by March 1 remains intact. This offer is not extended.
At this time, there is no extension on the last installment payment date of the year, scheduled for Dec.
1. This local law shall take effect immediately upon filing in the office of the Secretary of the State of New York, in accordance with section 27 of the Municipal Home Rule Law. It will be in place for the first 2021 quarterly payment date of March 1.
“This allows taxpayers a cushion of time while retaining cash flow, which has already been compromised by reduced revenue collections,” Saratoga Springs Commissioner of Finance Michele Madigan said at the meeting.