As 11,000 Exemption Bids Pour In, City Delays Pied-à-Terre Deadline Again

Approximately 65 percent of the homeowners who received letters from the Department of Finance indicating their properties may be subject to the incoming surcharge on second homes are claiming exemptions, according to the agency’s latest figures, and more are sure to follow after the agency has once again extended its deadline. Last call for homeowners looking to prove their residency within the five boroughs is now October 6.The city sent approximately 17,000 residential property owners notices this summer directing them to prove they live in the city or face a new property tax surcharge starting at $40,000. Those letters first gave recipients barely one month to clear their names, a date the agency later pushed to September 18 amid backlash over its confusing rollout of the fees. The deadline has now been delayed again.One of the main questions that has come up in widespread criticism of the pied-à-terre tax rollout — including two lawsuits and 11 pages of questions City Council sent the department last week after Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration bailed on an oversight hearing — has been: Why didn’t the finance department use the resources at its disposal to verify that units were occupied before placing the burden of proof on individuals? The answer, it seems, is that the agency lacked up-to-date data until now.“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 Department of Finance spokesperson said in a statement to The New York Sun on Tuesday evening.The spokesperson did not respond when asked why the city didn’t wait for the state tax data before sending the notices.Additional time may not be enough to ensure that everyone swept up in the mayor’s scattershot campaign to make luxury property owners “pay their fair share” can escape. Complicated cases, such as one The Sun previously reported of an elderly woman whose home was partially occupied after she moved into assisted living, have vexed even Department of Finance agents.A new lawsuit filed Monday presented similar frustrations. Artist Drew Shiflett and her husband. Moses Chao, are seeking relief after they received a surcharge notice for Ms. Shiflett’s studio in NoHo, which is classified as a “Joint Live-Work Quarter for Artists.” The unit’s Certificate of Occupancy designates the space for “manufacturing use,” according to the suit. The couple attempted to apply for an exemption from the pied-à-terre tax based on those facts, but could not file an application, because the Department of Finance’s portal was only set up to receive proof of residency, not other uses. The couple are asking the Manhattan Supreme Court to block the city from taxing them or applying the pied-à-terre surcharge to artist spaces like theirs. They argue that the city’s process to determine who is subject to the new tax is out of line with the state law that created it.“The statute never uses the word ‘exemption’ to describe the non-primary resident requirement, let alone permits the City to shift the burden to the property owner — in this case, a loft owner,” their complaint states.“The Surcharge contains provision” that would place their property “within the realm of liability” for the tax, the couple argue, yet they haven’t been able to shake it.Ms. Shiflett and Mr. Chao joined three other New Yorkers who sued over the rollout earlier this month seeking to block the city from moving forward with the tax. A judge will hear arguments in that case on Monday.

As 11,000 Exemption Bids Pour In, City Delays Pied-à-Terre Deadline Again

As 11,000 Exemption Bids Pour In, City Delays Pied-à-Terre Deadline Again

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