New York Property Tax

New York’s assessment system is municipal to its core: each city and town chooses its own uniform percentage of market value, values every parcel as of a July 1 valuation date (in most communities), publishes a tentative roll on May 1, and hears grievances on Grievance Day — the fourth Tuesday in May in most places, with major published exceptions. The roll itself prints the assessor’s estimate of market value next to the assessment, which shapes what an honest appeal argues.

In this section

• The roll, the uniform percentage, and Grievance Day — how the roll is built, what the two numbers on it mean, and how the grievance works.
• Judicial review: SCAR and certiorari — the 30-day window after the final roll, the small-claims route, and the Article 7 proceeding.
• New York property tax deadlines — the full municipal calendar from July 1 through the two bill seasons.

Who does what

• The city or town assessor values every parcel at the municipality’s chosen uniform percentage of market value and carries the roll.
• The Board of Assessment Review (BAR) — a local citizen board — hears grievances on Grievance Day.
• The State Department of Taxation and Financepublishes the calendar, the grievance procedures, and the equalization rates that reconcile the municipalities’ different uniform percentages.
• School districts and counties levy against the same roll — which is why the two bill seasons exist.

The two numbers on the roll

Every assessment on the roll sits next to the assessor’s estimate of market value and the uniform percentage the municipality chose: a $500,000 house in a 40% town appears as a $200,000 assessment; the identical house in a 100% town appears as $500,000. Neither number means anything without the other — which is why a raw comparison between neighboring towns is meaningless, and why the honest grievance compares the assessment against its own roll’s market estimate.

What this does not cover

New York City’s class-based system, cooperative apartments, exemption programs (STAR, veterans, agricultural districts), and the special taxing districts are outside this section. AssessCheck has no data connection to any New York municipality or the Department of Taxation and Finance. RPTL sections are cited only where an official page names them.