Form IT-606I: Instructions for the QEZE Credit for Real Property Taxes (Tax Year 2025)

Form IT-606I contains the official instructions from the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance for completing Form IT-606, Claim for QEZE Credit for Real Property Taxes. This credit was created for businesses operating within New York’s former Empire Zones program, giving qualified empire zone enterprises (QEZEs) a way to offset a portion of the real property taxes they pay each year. If your business holds QEZE certification tied to a specific zone location, this is the form that lets you translate that status into an actual dollar credit on your New York State tax return.

The QEZE real property tax credit isn’t automatic just because a company is located in a designated zone. It depends on maintaining certification as a qualified empire zone enterprise, meeting employment test requirements, and being able to show the property taxes paid on eligible business property located within the zone. The instructions in IT-606I walk through how to calculate the benefit period, apply the correct benefit percentage based on how long the business has held QEZE status, and determine which portion of paid property taxes actually qualifies.

Who Needs This Form

This form is relevant to corporations, partnerships, and sole proprietors that were certified as QEZEs and continue to own or lease real property subject to property tax within an eligible zone. Businesses that lost their zone certification, or whose benefit period has expired, generally won’t be eligible to file this claim anymore. The instructions clarify how to determine whether your business is still within an active benefit period, since the credit phases down over time rather than staying at a fixed rate indefinitely.

New businesses that recently received QEZE certification should pay close attention to the eligibility tests described in IT-606I, particularly the employment number test and the employment increase test, since both affect whether the credit can be claimed at all in a given tax year. Established QEZE businesses that have claimed this credit in prior years will still want to review the instructions annually, because benefit percentages and property tax calculations can shift depending on the specific year of the benefit period.

When You Use Form IT-606

Form IT-606, guided by these instructions, is filed alongside your New York State income tax return for any year in which you’re claiming the QEZE real property tax credit. The form itself calculates the credit amount, and the instructions in IT-606I explain how to fill in each line correctly, including how to report property taxes paid on multiple parcels if your business operates from more than one location within the zone.

Because this credit is one of several New York State economic development incentives available to qualifying businesses, it’s common for companies to be filing multiple related credit forms in the same tax year. Businesses claiming the Excelsior Jobs Program benefits, for example, may want to review the Form IT-607I instructions alongside this one, since some companies qualify for both programs depending on their location and job creation history. Similarly, businesses involved in site cleanup or property redevelopment projects should check the Form IT-613I instructions for the environmental remediation insurance credit, which applies to a different but related set of property-related tax situations.

How to Get and Complete the Form

IT-606I is only available as a printable PDF from the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance website. There’s no fillable digital version, so you’ll need to print the instructions and the accompanying Form IT-606, then complete both by hand using the worksheets provided. The instructions walk through the benefit period calculation first, since that determines the applicable percentage you’ll apply to your qualifying real property taxes later in the form.

Keep your property tax bills, zone certification documents, and any prior-year QEZE credit filings on hand while completing the form, since the instructions reference these documents directly for verifying benefit period years and qualifying property. Businesses that have also claimed credits related to larger redevelopment projects might find it useful to compare their filing against the Form IT-633I instructions for the Economic Transformation and Facility Redevelopment Program credit, particularly if the business property in question has changed use or ownership status recently.

Once completed, Form IT-606 gets attached to your New York State personal or corporate income tax return for the relevant tax year. Since the form must be filled out manually, double-check your math on the benefit period percentages before submitting, since errors here are one of the more common reasons these claims get flagged for review.