If you never signed up for STAR, or signed up late, you haven't lost the money. The state lets you register for a past year up to three years after that year's income tax deadline. Right now, 2023, 2024 and 2025 are all still open, along with this year. The last column shows which year's tax return the state reads for each one.
| STAR year | Register by | Return |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | April 15, 2027 | 2021 |
| 2024 | April 15, 2028 | 2022 |
| 2025 | April 15, 2029 | 2023 |
| 2026 | April 15, 2030 | 2024 |
You had to qualify in that year
The state pays a past year only if you would have qualified at the time. Two things matter:
- You owned the home and lived in it on July 1 of that year. If you bought in August 2024, your first STAR year is 2025.
- Your income was under that year's limit. For Basic STAR, the limit is $500,000. For Enhanced STAR, which goes to homes with an owner 65 or older, the limit was lower and changed each year.
| STAR year | Enhanced income limit |
|---|---|
| 2023 | $93,200 |
| 2024 | $98,700 |
| 2025 | $107,300 |
| 2026 | $110,750 |
One wrinkle: for 2023 through 2025, the state counted the income of every owner, even one who lived somewhere else. Starting in 2026, only the owners who live in the home count. The rest of the rules are in our who qualifies post.
How to claim a past year
Register the same way you would for this year. Our sign-up post walks through the four steps. Give the real date you bought the home, since that's what the state uses to work out which years you're owed. If you have a question about a specific year, call the state at 518-457-2036.
To see which years the state has already paid you, use its credit lookup. It lists every STAR payment since 2018, with the date and the amount.
The catch if you have the old exemption
Some longtime owners get STAR as a line on the school tax bill, the older STAR exemption. If that line was on your bill in a given year, you already got STAR for that year. There's nothing more to claim.
You can ask the state to switch a past year from the exemption to the check, but you'd have to pay back that year's exemption with interest first. For most homes, that isn't worth doing.
There's also a timing rule for switching this year. If you switch after the deadline but by December 31, the line stays on your bill this year and the check starts next year. If the check would have paid more than the line, the state adds the difference to next year's check.
Every rule here comes from the New York State tax department's STAR questions page and its Enhanced STAR income limits page. Registering is free, and you can do it yourself.