NYC judge orders new notices for secondary-home tax as Mamdani administration appeals ruling
A Staten Island judge on Tuesday ordered New York City officials to mail new notices to homeowners who have been identified as liable for a new tax on secondary homes. The city immediately appealed the ruling, triggering a stay that paused what would have effectively required the rollout of the surcharge on high-priced pieds-à-terre to restart.“With a stay, we will continue implementing the surcharge fairly, efficiently and in full compliance with the law, as we have since day one,” Matt Rauschenbach, a spokesman for Mayor Zohran Mamdani, said in a statement, as cited by Reuters.The ruling, which came in favour of a group of homeowners who had sued the city, was issued a week before the October 6 deadline for homeowners notified that they owed the tax to prove that their properties should not be subject to the measure, a key initiative of Mamdani’s administration.In his ruling, Wayne Ozzi, a New York State Supreme Court justice in Richmond County, said the New York City Department of Finance’s steps to begin collecting the tax had caused “confusion and dismay”. He said the process appeared to have been driven by a rush to fill budget gaps and had unfairly placed the burden on homeowners to prove that their properties were their primary residences.Ozzi cited the finance department’s release of a supplemental roll listing more than 900,000 properties that it said might be subject to the new tax. The city also sent letters to 17,000 homeowners informing them that they owed the tax.“No crime is involved here, but homeowners are being substantially harmed and penalized needlessly,” Ozzi wrote.The judge ordered the Department of Finance to remove the supplemental roll from its website, cancel the 17,000 tax notices already sent and use the latest available tax and other records to determine who is liable for the tax. The department was also directed to prepare new, individualised notices for mailing.The new tax is expected to generate $500 million annually for New York City, the largest city in the United States.Last month, US President Donald Trump called the tax a “dangerous political experiment” and said he was exploring legal options for the federal government to reverse it.On Monday, former US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and casino mogul Steve Wynn, who own property in New York City, sued the city over the pied-à-terre tax in a Long Island court. They argued that the tax on secondary homes unconstitutionally discriminates against nonresidents.
