The Mamdani administration is giving property owners in New York City more time to prove whether the new pied-à-terre tax applies to them.
In a new court document, the city says the deadline for homeowners to file proof of residency is being extended. Instead of September 18, the new deadline is October 6.
The newly installed tax is meant for people who own a second home in the city, valued at $5 million or more. But a group of property owners is challenging the way its been rolled out after the city notified roughly 17,000 homeowners that they may, or may not, be subject to the tax.
Mamdani says despite a smaller number of second homeowners than first projected — it’ll still net the city $500M a year.
“We continue to be confident in that assessment of what that annual revenue will look like,” Mamdani said.
Of the estimated 17,000 property owners sent letters saying they might own the new tax, roughly 11,000 have so far applied for the city’s exemption. The city says 2,900 have already been approved for an exemption and another couple thousand are still being processed.
Andrew Rein of the nonpartisan Citizens Budget Commission says instead of new taxes, the city should have been trying to attract and retain wealth.
“They’ve extended the deadline. That’s the right thing to do,” Rein said. “If we had kept the same share [of millionaires] in New York City as we had in 2010, we’d have $2 billion more in revenue today.”
But supporters of the tax say too much luxury sits vacant, in a city facing a housing crisis.
“In Hudson Yards — in my district — I know of empty apartments that no one lives there,” Assembly Member Tony Simone, a Democrat, said. “Some oligarch or a tech billionaire from a different country or different state just parks their money there.”
But opponents argue the city got overly aggressive and illegally threatened legitimate homeowners. A judge could rule next week.
A judge on Staten Island issued a temporary restraining order that stops the Mamdani administration from moving forward with the pied-à-terre tax plan/ Melissa Russo has more details.