The Wall Street Journal <\/a>reported.<\/p>\nWitkoff also recently repaid nearly $78,000 in property tax breaks after discovering he had continued receiving benefits reserved for primary residents despite relocating to Florida, according to the outlet.<\/p>\n
Mamdani’s new pied-\u00e0-terre tax targets properties worth at least $5 million whose owners maintain their primary residences outside New York City, part of the mayor’s broader effort to increase taxes on the wealthy.<\/p>\n
For Witkoff, 69, the new surcharge will add approximately $101,000 annually, more than doubling his current property tax bill, the Journal reported.<\/p>\n
Witkoff also lost a $24,000 annual abatement intended for owners who use their New York apartments as primary residences, according to the report.<\/p>\n
Public records reviewed by the Journal show that Witkoff established his primary residence at a Miami Beach waterfront estate in 2019, subsequently registering to vote in Florida and formally declaring the state his permanent home.<\/p>\n
His estranged wife remained in their Manhattan apartment until 2023, when she also relocated to Miami Beach. The property continued receiving the tax benefit afterward, records showed.<\/p>\n
A spokeswoman told the Journal that Witkoff was unaware of the abatement and repaid nearly $78,000 after the newspaper contacted his representatives.<\/p>\n
His attorney, Robert Pollack, said the couple had never been notified about residency reporting requirements.<\/p>\n
“The continued application of the abatement here was inadvertent and resulted from that gap in process, not from any misrepresentation by the owners,” Pollack said.<\/p>\n
Witkoff is not the only wealthy property owner caught up in the city’s tax crackdown.<\/p>\n
The Journal identified several other Florida residents who received New York primary-residence tax breaks while simultaneously claiming Florida homestead exemptions.<\/p>\n
Cerberus Capital Management executive Lee Millstein faces losing a $13,000 annual abatement on his Manhattan apartment. Records reviewed by the Journal show he and his wife purchased a $22 million Coral Gables mansion in 2020 that is listed as their primary residence.<\/p>\n
Hedge fund executive Ruben Kliksberg received a $14,000 annual abatement after moving to Florida in 2022, the Journal reported. His spokesman blamed a clerical error and said Kliksberg was making the necessary payments.<\/p>\n
Financier Ronald Olin has received benefits in both states since at least 2018, records showed. He told the Journal he was unaware of the New York abatement.<\/p>\n
The newspaper noted that tax bills for all three were mailed to out-of-state addresses.<\/p>\n
City officials said stepped-up residency audits have already removed approximately 10,000 apartments from the abatement program.<\/p>\n
“It’s a really flawed system,” property-management executive Paul Brensilber told the Journal.<\/p>\n
Mamdani’s new surcharge also faces a legal challenge after a state judge ordered the city to redo its rollout. The city appealed, temporarily putting the ruling on hold.<\/p>\n
\u00a9 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor Zohran Mamdani (L) and Steve Witkoff(AP\/Getty Images) President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and other wealthy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,56,63,65,64],"class_list":["post-373165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Mayor](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/newsmax_809\/d1c5dddd3dca10e9dd634beb704f4f77.jpg\"\/)
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