Roslyn Estates officials have decided to table the old business of the Charitable Gifts Reserve Fund and Property Tax Credit Program.
The state Senate and state Assembly recently adopted a new law under the Real Property Tax Law, which will grant property owners credit toward their property tax bill if they make contributions to a charitable reserve fund, said Village Attorney Chris Prior.
Prior said that the law would allow for 95 percent of the deduction to be credited, and a resident would need to pay 105 percent of their property tax bill to receive full credit.
Village Clerk Michael Tomicich suggested that until the law go into effect in 2019.
“We’re 18 days into collecting taxes,” said Trustee Michael Tomicich. “We have until the second of July… If people were to come in with this, they would have to write us a check, and then we would have to write them a check back, for the first payment that was made to them.”
“The recordkeeping is going to be a nightmare,” said Tomicich.
“It’s rather confusing and the risk, to me, of doing it right now,” said Prior. “The IRS said ‘we’re looking at this, and please understand we intend to look at the substance and not the function over form.’ The suggestion in what the IRS said was, ‘don’t expect that this is going to fly.’”
The villages of Kings Point and Upper Brookville have adopted the law already.
Prior advised the Board of Trustees to wait with this plan to see how it plays out in other villages. “What’s the loss? The only loss is not taking advantage of this for a year what our residents would have,” said Prior.
In theory, the law would provide a surplus of money for the village use.
In other business, the village will look into planting $4,800 worth of trees between now and the end of July, or after Labor Day, according to Tomicich.
Trustee Brett Auerbach suggested planting the new trees where the dead trees have been taken down in 2018.
