Former NYC Resident Donald Trump Dings Pied-à-Terre Tax
President Donald Trump, a longtime New Yorker who shifted his permanent residence to Florida in 2019, is taking aim at New York City’s pied-à-terre tax.
The president railed against the controversial surcharge for second homes in a Truth Social post reported by Politico. His latest jab at a policy by Mayor Zohran Mamdani could be more personal than political: the president’s Trump Tower penthouse has an assigned market value of $6 million, meaning it would be subject to the tax, though it’s unclear if Trump is one of the many to receive a notice about the tax.
Trump went as far as to muse about a federal challenge to the city measure.
“I am looking to see if the Federal Government has any legal right to avert this disaster, before it is too late, for the millions of people who cherish New York and want to see it thrive, as opposed to becoming a filthy, crime[-]ridden, decrepit place of mockery and scorn,” Trump posted.
Trump’s post also took aim at another New York City measure he sought to block, congestion pricing. The president claimed the policy added to “Financial, and then Social, RUIN.”
Those closer to the situation on the ground weren’t happy with Trump’s not-so-veiled threat.
“It’s about paying your fair share,” Gov. Kathy Hochul retorted. “Donald Trump should focus on all the pain he’s causing New Yorkers and knock it off and not worry about us.”
Rhetoric aside, much of the debate about the pied-à-terre tax today has taken issue with its rollout, instead of the policy itself.
Last week, former Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro filed a lawsuit on behalf of three homeowners challenging the implementation of the tax on non-primary residences with home values above a certain threshold. The lawsuit claimed that the city’s rollout of the tax did not follow statutory requirements for identifying taxable homes.
In a signed order, a judge temporarily ordered the city to take down the list of 900,000 potentially affected homeowners published to the Department of Finance website and halt further actions in collecting the tax based on the published list or the notices mailed to 17,000 homeowners over the last several weeks.
The city filed a notice of appeal hours after the ruling, which triggered a stay on the order and allows the DOF to “continue with the pied-a-terre [tax] implementation,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
A hearing in the case is scheduled for Aug. 31.
Read more
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