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Assessor's Office / Property Tax FAQ's

	Question: When are the Town of Amherst / County taxes or School District taxes due? Answer: For answers to tax payment due dates and penalties, please contact the Amherst Tax Receiver's Office at 716.631.7045.

	Question: Why can't I find a specific property or address on your website? What is the best way for me to perform my search? Answer: You will be able to search for a property by street address, section, block & lot (SBL) number, or owner name. You may also use the online mapping function to locate a property. Details about these options are below. Address search - The most common problem visitors encounter is they do not enter the property address as it appears in the Assessor's database. This is often easy to correct. The most important thing to remember about entering an address is to keep the prefixes and suffixes abbreviated. DO NOT spell out words like east, west, north, south, road, avenue, boulevard, street, etc. Instead, use standard abbreviations with NO punctuation. For example, East is E, West is W, Avenue is Ave, etc. Remember to NOT use a period following these standard abbreviations. When in doubt enter part of the street name or the street number only. Select your property from the drop-down listing that follows. The listing may include several potential matches, but the property should be found in the drop-down list. For example, if you live at 123 Maple Rd, simply enter "123 Maple" or "123 Map" (without the quotation marks). SBL search - If you happen to know the SBL for a property, you may simply enter all or part of the number and select from the resulting property set. SBLs generally appear as a series of numbers with periods and dashes (e.g., 16.00-4-1.3). Owner Name search - This feature has recently been restored to the Town of Amherst website. It is intended to serve as a useful way to find a property if you do not know the exact address or SBL number. The owner name information is captured from our Assessor's property database and reflects the most accurate information available at this time. Entering part of the owner name will result in better results. If you enter "James" (without the quotation marks), your results will return owner names that contain "James" as first, middle or last name. Online Mapping - Some users may want to locate the property on a map in order to begin their research. The online mapping tool allows users to zoom in and pan across the Town of Amherst until they find the property in question. Advanced users may perform additional mapping functions as well.

	Question: Can I find property tax information for Village of Williamsville properties? Answer: This website provides property tax information for Village of Williamsville properties, but does not provide specific village tax information. You will find Town, County and School taxes on this site but you will need to contact the Village of Williamsville Clerk's Office at 632.4120 (option 9) for detailed village tax information.

	Question: Who is responsible for the property taxes at a specific address? Answer: If you are the legal property owner as of the property tax due date, then you are responsible for payment of the taxes whether you receive the tax bill or not.

	Question: I bought the property during the year. Do I have to pay taxes for the whole year? Answer: No matter when you purchased the property, as the owner, you are responsible for paying the entire tax bill. However, taxes are usually prorated on the property sale closing statement and credit is given by the seller for the time during the year that you were not the owner. This credit is calculated by the attorney who handled the closing. No money is given by the seller to the Tax Collector as partial payment of that year’s taxes.

	Question: Do I have to apply for the Residential STAR Exemption every year? Answer: Please refer to the Assessor’s Office for information regarding STAR Exemptions.

	Question: Do I have to apply for the Senior STAR Exemption every year? Answer: Please refer to the Assessor’s Office for information regarding STAR Exemptions.

	Question: What if I cannot afford to pay my tax bill in one payment? Can I make partial payments? Answer: Partial tax payments are accepted in any dollar amount and with as many payments necessary to pay your bill in full. Please be aware that any unpaid balance after the due date will accrue interest and penalties as per the schedule listed on the back of your property tax bill.

	Question: What if I will be out of town when my property tax bill is due? Answer: The Amherst Town Clerk’s Office (Tax Receiver) has options available to those property owners that will be out of town for extended periods of time. Please contact the Town Clerk’s Office (Tax Receiver) for further information.

	Question: What is the “RPTL” dollar amount on my Town and County tax bill? Answer: An RPTL charge, or Real Property Tax Levy, can refer to a number of non- recurring charges. For more information about your specific RPTL charge, please contact the Amherst Assessor’s Office.

	Question: The name and/or mailing address are not correct on the tax bill. What should I do? Answer: Please contact the Amherst Assessor’s Office with the correct information.

	Question: What is the correlation between your assessed value and your taxes? Answer: Assessments vs. Taxes: What’s the Difference Information Sheet