Westchester County Department of Finance

All of our Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports include statistical data about Westchester County. Since 2010, the Comprehensive Annual Finance Report includes a copy of the GFOA Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting. We strive for excellence in our financial reporting and anticipate repeating this achievement each year.

Publications

Annual Comprehensive Finance Reports

Bond Sale Official Statements

BPS Purchasing Directory: Buyer Listing

Uniform Guidance Schedules (SEFA)

Forms

Certificate of Residence

W-9 Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification Federal tax form

Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) Vendor Direct Payment Authorization Form

Application for Certificate of Authority to Collect Hotel Room Occupancy Tax

Information Verification for Online Filing and Payments 

Notices

Unclaimed Funds Notices

Following the mandates imposed by laws and regulations, and complying with contractual obligations, the Finance Department provides various services to the residents of Westchester County.

High school graduates starting their two-year college studies outside of Westchester may obtain a necessary Certificate of Residence, court litigants may obtain refunds of court ordered funds held by the department, and property owners may submit legal stipulations for the processing of assessment recalculations.

The department also provides a centralized purchasing function that obtains the lowest-cost, highest-quality supplies and contractual services for county departments, sharing the savings with participating Westchester municipalities.  Our General Accounting and Accounts Payable units have final approval responsibility for every financial transaction and expense payment for all County departments. Yearly independent audits produce stellar reports on an annual basis. 

Other services pertain to items as mundane as the processing of bail refunds for criminal court cases, the documenting of unclaimed funds and property per New York State law, to vastly more pertinent matters such as the maintenance and operation of the County wide FLSA compliant payroll systems for all county employees, the administration of benefit programs in compliance with nine collective bargaining agreements and maintaining and operating manual and automated electronic accounting systems fully compliant with all aspects of Government Auditing Standards as promulgated by the Comptroller General of the United States.

Westchester County does not assess or compute the individual property owner’s tax obligation. Assessments are performed by the local city or town assessor; taxes are computed and billed by the local city or town tax department. The local city or town tax department also computes and bills the County portion of property taxes. Each individual property owner in the city and town is billed based on the value of their property; this value is known as the "assessed value".

The Westchester County Finance Department computes and creates 25 annual tax billings, known as tax warrants, for the 25 cities and towns in Westchester for the County portion of property taxes. The total assessed value of each city and town is used to proportionately produce the 25 County tax bills sent to the cities and towns. This Finance Department responsibility is mandated in the Westchester County Charter, and must be prepared by Feb. 1 of each year for submission to the county executive. The county executive reviews and approves the tax warrants and submits them to the Board of Legislators who formally enact the yearly tax legislation.

The tax warrants are signed by the Chair of the Board of Legislators and delivered to all 25 cities and towns in Westchester. The cities and towns, per county charter, collect the county portion of real estate taxes and guarantee the full amount to the county government. The cities and towns also collect their own local taxes for their municipal operations, school districts, and other uses such as fire districts, lighting, ambulance service, and local water and sewer systems, among others.

Tax Liens and Penalty Fees
The cities and towns, per county charter, collect the Westchester County portion of real estate taxes and guarantee the full amount to the county government. The cities and towns in Westchester pursue any delinquent property owners directly and may occasionally conduct delinquent real estate property tax lien sales or auctions. See a listing of the cities and towns in Westchester to contact them if you are interested in lien sales.

Westchester County does not receive any of the late payment penalty fees or interest charges imposed on late paying property owners. Those penalties are kept by the cities and towns in Westchester.   

The Department of Finance is responsible for the accounts payable, purchasing, employee payroll, debt management, pension administration, revenue investment, tax collection, certiorari tax judgment processing and employee benefit functions of the Westchester County government.

A variety of forms and reports are available for review and download. These include Westchester County’s Annual Comprehensive Financial Reports, Uniform Guidance Schedules (SEFA), and Bond Sale Official Statements. You may also access forms like the Certificate of Residence application, EFT and the application for Certificate of Authority to Collect Room Occupancy Tax. Look for these forms under Documentation.

The County issues long-term debt in the form of General Obligation Serial Bonds to fund capital construction and renovation projects within Westchester.

The Bureau of Purchase and Supplies has many agreements for supplies and services with vendors. We encourage participating local governments, school districts and fire districts to save money and time by reviewing and, where it makes financial sense, benefiting from our contracts.

Westchester County is rated Aa1 by Moody's; AAA by Standard and Poor's and AAA by Fitch.