Mamdani delays pied-à-terre tax exemption deadline again

The Mamdani administration is giving homeowners hoping to snag an exemption from the controversial pied-à-terre tax even more time to send their applications to the Department of Finance, a court filing shows.

DOF had previously extended the deadline from Aug. 21 to Sept. 18 but is now giving applicants until Oct. 6 to prove that they shouldn’t be subject to the second home surcharge. 

“From the beginning, we have been committed to ensuring that New Yorkers have the time and information they need,” DOF spokesperson Ryan Lavis said in a statement. “We have received the tax information from the state for 2025 and want to give New Yorkers more time to apply for an exemption, if applicable.”

The filing comes days before parties are set to present oral arguments on Aug. 31 in a case brought by a group of homeowners challenging the tax’s rollout. The city notes in its latest filing that none of the homeowner plaintiffs, including Kenneth Fishel of Legacy Real Estate, are subject to the surcharge and argues that they therefore didn’t suffer harm by being named on the list.

The plaintiffs, represented by former Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro, sued the city in Staten Island court. Judge Wayne Ozzi granted a temporary restraining order, which was stayed pending the administration’s appeal of the determination.

Last week, the Mamdani administration faced blowback from lawmakers for not sending anyone to testify before a City Council oversight committee, which DOF Commissioner Richard Lee said was due to sensitive active litigation in his written testimony.

Both vocal opponents and supporters of the underlying policy agree that the rollout has been a mess. Plaintiffs in the ongoing suit argue that the initial list of more than 900,000 addresses published by DOF as potential targets of the new tax arbitrarily forced New York City residents to prove they aren’t subject to the charge. The administration has framed the supplemental roll as information typically published on an annual basis in the public assessment roll, meant to be whittled down from an initial pool to contain eligible non-primary residents.

The tax covers single-family homes valued at $5 million or more, as well as co-ops and condos valued at $1 million or more by the DOF. As of Aug. 24, almost 11,000 exemption applications had been started, with just over 5,500 completed and approximately 2,900 exemptions granted.

Read more

Pied-à-terre tax rolls ahead despite battle 

No solutions in sight for co-ops’ pied-à-terre problem

Mamdani admin skips pied-à-terre tax hearing, Council grills empty seat: “Outrageous”