> NYC will now tax ultra-wealthy non-residents who own luxury homes, but don't live in the city

Phillip_McCavity wrote:

The idea is reasonable, but it might be very tricky to accomplish because I would bet that these homes aren't owned by people but LLCs whose owners aren't known.

It might be possible to simply tax units that are vacant for a percentage of the time, but that itself could be difficult to track.

It's not that complicated.

Any NYC home valued over $5 million gets an extra property tax, UNLESS it's the owner's primary residence. 

Sure, it's possible to cheat on your taxes, but if you get audited, you're fuqed.

It's like if a wealthy person owns homes in NYC & Las Vegas, Nevada (which has no state & local taxes), and they spend all their time in NYC, but when they file their income taxes, they falsely claim they spend all their time living in their Las Vegas, Nevada home (since NV has no state & local income taxes).  They can try, but they'll get fuqed over if they're audited & caught.

Property value collapse in 3, 2, 1....

wrote:

NYC simply asks the rich person whether their $5+ million property is their primary residence.

"NO": Ok, then you have to pay an extra property tax.

"YES": Ok, then you have to pay brutally high NYC state & local taxes.

If the rich person refuses to pay the extra property tax, then the government seizes their property.

If the rich person sells their luxury home, then that adds housing supply to the market, and reduces housing costs for everyone.

Its owned by an LLC.

They rent it for $1 from the LLC.

Phillip_McCavity wrote:

The idea is reasonable, but it might be very tricky to accomplish because I would bet that these homes aren't owned by people but LLCs whose owners aren't known.

It might be possible to simply tax units that are vacant for a percentage of the time, but that itself could be difficult to track.

LLCs always have a transparency clause or a principal you make the target. Some local agent could not declare a fozen properties his primary residence.

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