New York Laws
Title 2 - Private Property
485-N - Residential-Commercial Exemption Program.

(a) "Applicant" means any person obligated to pay real property taxes
on real property for which an exemption from taxes under this section is
sought.
(b) "Benefit area" means the area within a municipality, designated by
local law, to which an exemption, established pursuant to this section,
applies.
(c) "Commercial construction work" means the modernization,
rehabilitation, expansion or other improvement of commercial use
property or the portion of mixed-use property to be used for commercial
purposes.
(d) "Commercial purpose or use" means the buying, selling or otherwise
providing of goods or services, including hotel services, or other
lawful business or commercial activities permitted upon mixed-use
property.
(e) "Commercial use property" means real property on which will exist,
after completion of commercial construction work, a building used for
commercial purposes or use.
(f) "Mixed-use property" means real property on which will exist,
after completion of residential construction work or a combination of
residential construction work and commercial construction work, a
building or structure used for both residential and commercial purposes.
(g) "Municipality" means any town, city, village or other taxing
entity located in a county having a population of not less than
sixty-five thousand three hundred ninety and not more than sixty-five
thousand four hundred as determined by the federal decennial census for
the year two thousand ten or in a county having a population of not less
than ninety-eight thousand nine hundred and not more than ninety-nine
thousand as determined by the federal decennial census for the year two
thousand ten.
(h) "Residential construction work" means the creation, modernization,
rehabilitation, expansion or other improvement of dwelling units, other
than dwelling units in a hotel, in the portion of mixed-use property to
be used for residential purposes.
2. (a) A municipality, other than a county or school district as
provided in this section, may, by local law, provide for the exemption
of real property in a designated benefit area from taxation as provided
in this section. Subsequent to the adoption of such a local law, the
county in which such municipality is located may, by local law, and any
school district, all or part of which is located in such municipality,
may, by resolution, exempt such property from its taxation in the same
manner and to the same extent as such municipality has done.
(b) Such local law shall provide for the appointment of a
commercial/mixed use incentive board which shall be responsible for
designating the benefit area to be exempt from taxation as provided in
this section. The membership and composition of such board shall be set
forth in local law. Such board shall present a plan to the local
governing body concerning the various types of commercial and/or
mixed-use properties which may be granted an exemption pursuant to this
section. In addition such plan shall identify designated benefit areas,
within which such exemption may be offered. In developing such plan the
commercial/mixed use incentive board shall consider the planning
objectives of the municipality and the necessity of the exemption to the
attraction of commercial and mixed use development as identified by the
municipality and the economic benefit to the area of providing
exemptions to commercial and mixed-use properties. In instances where a

municipality has previously designed a business district encompassing a
defined area which was subject to public input and was approved by and
received funding for economic development purposes from a state agency,
the municipality may utilize the defined boundaries of such previously
defined area, or a combination of such boundaries subject to review by
the commercial/mixed-use incentive board.
3. Upon the adoption of such a local law the commercial use property
or mixed-use property that was converted, created, modernized,
rehabilitated, expanded or otherwise improved, shall be exempt from
taxation and special ad valorem levies as provided for in subdivision
four of this section.
4. (a) (i) For a period of twelve years following the approval of an
application, the increase in assessed value of such property
attributable to such conversion, creation, modernization,
rehabilitation, expansion or other improvement shall be exempt as
provided in subparagraph (ii) of this paragraph. Such exemption shall be
computed with respect to the "exemption base". The exemption base shall
be determined for each year in which there is an increase in assessed
value so attributable from that of the previous year's assessed value.
(ii) The following shall determine the computation of the tax
exemption:

Year of exemption Percentage of exemption
1 through 8 100% of exemption base
9 80% of exemption base
10 60% of exemption base
11 40% of exemption base
12 20% of exemption base
(b) No such exemption shall be granted unless:
(i) such conversion, creation, modernization, rehabilitation,
expansion or other improvement was commenced subsequent to the date on
which the municipality's local law took effect; and
(ii) the cost of such conversion exceeds the sum of ten thousand
dollars or such greater amount as may be specified by local law.
(c) For purposes of this section the term "conversion, creation,
modernization, rehabilitation, expansion or other improvement" shall not
include ordinary maintenance and repairs.
(d) No such exemption shall be granted concurrent with or subsequent
to any other real property tax exemption granted to the same
improvements to real property, except, where during the period of such
previous exemption, payments in lieu of taxes or other payments were
made to the municipality in an amount that would have been equal to or
greater than the amount of real property taxes that would have been paid
on such improvements had such property been granted an exemption
pursuant to this section. In such case, an exemption shall be granted
for a number of years equal to the twelve year exemption granted
pursuant to this section less the number of years the property would
have been previously exempt from real property taxes.
5. Such exemption shall be granted only upon application by the owner
of real property on a form prescribed by the commissioner. Such
application shall be filed with the assessor of the municipality or
county having the power to assess property for taxation on or before the
appropriate taxable status date of such municipality or county.
6. If the assessor is satisfied that the applicant is entitled to an
exemption pursuant to this section, he or she shall approve the
application and such real property shall thereafter be exempt from
taxation and special ad valorem levies as provided in this section

commencing with the assessment roll prepared after the taxable status
date referred to in subdivision five of this section. The assessed
value of any exemption granted pursuant to this section shall be entered
by the assessor on the assessment roll with the taxable property, with
the amount of the exemption shown in a separate column.
* NB Repealed September 23, 2024

Structure New York Laws