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Amendments to Canton town and village tax codes open up exemptions to more homeowners

Posted 2/19/20

By ADAM ATKINSON North Country This Week CANTON — Recent amendments to village and town tax laws will open up two property tax breaks to more Canton homeowners. Town and village residents who make …

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Amendments to Canton town and village tax codes open up exemptions to more homeowners

Posted

By ADAM ATKINSON
North Country This Week

CANTON — Recent amendments to village and town tax laws will open up two property tax breaks to more Canton homeowners.

Town and village residents who make qualified upgrades on their residences and senior citizens living in the village who meet newly expanded low income guidelines could see a break on their property tax bills.

The village board of trustees at their meeting Tuesday, Feb. 18 approved a local law which increases the dollar value of capital improvements qualifying for property tax exemption from the current level of up to $50,000 to $80,000, the upper level approved by the state Real Property Tax Law.

The town council approved a similar local law at their meeting Thursday, Feb. 13.

“So the way it works is that if you have an improvement you are exempt to 100 percent of the increase in the assessed value up to $80,000,” said Village Attorney Gerald Ducharme at the Feb. 18 meeting. “And then its reduced by 12 and a half percent each year for seven years.”

This exemption applies to improvements to one- and two-family dwellings, occupied by the property owner. The current dollar value of the improvements must be between $3,000 and $80,000, and the building must be at least 5 years old.

The village board at their meeting also passed a local law amending village code to increase the income level range which qualifies for a property tax exemption for low income seniors. The upper limit of the current range of $11,700-$19,200 was increased to $28,400 per year under the amendment.

The percentage of exemption is as much as 50 percent at the low end of that scale decreasing gradually to about 10 percent at the high end of the range. The changes bring the local code more in line with the state levels which range as high as $29,000.
The amendment to the senior tax exemption under village code also changed all references stating “husband” and “wife” to “spouse,” and stated that real property owned by siblings could now qualify for the exemption.

To apply for the exemptions, village and town residents can contact the assessor’s office at 315-386-2595, or assessor@cantonny.gov. For more information visit https://cantonny.gov/government/assessor/.