NYC loses more than half of pied-a-terre tax appeals, threatening projected revenue pot: Out the window

More than half of the thousands of homeowners who have already appealed the city’s new pied-à-terre tax have won their cases, threatening the levy’s much ballyhooed revenue potential. When Big Apple Mayor Zohran Mamdani and New York Gov.Kathy Hochul announced the controversial tax on luxury second homes — or co-ops worth more than $1 million and houses over $5 million — in the city, they claimed the policy would generate $500 million-plus in revenue.But the city Department of Finance told The Post that as of Friday morning, exemption applications had hit 10,000, with a whopping 5,700 approved — and the lawsuits and exemption requests are still coming in fast and furiously.

“I think the bigger fiscal question is whether the city’s $500 million revenue estimate was realistic in the first place,” said plaintiff lawyer Ben Williams of Rosenberg & Ellis. “Once primary residences are removed and overstated market values are challenged, we may find that the amount actually collectible is significantly less than projected,” he said.The appeals deadline – which has now been moved three times – was pushed again to October 13 from Oct 6.after a lawsuit filed by a former first deputy mayor to Eric Adams, lawyer Randy Mastro, on Staten Island. State supreme-court Justice Wayne Ozzi ruled in Masto’s favor a little over a week ago, saying the city needs to redo its roll-out of the tax plan from scratch.

The ruling said the city prematurely blasted out letters to 17,000 homeowners it said could be affected by the tax.That 17,000 figure has dropped to more like 10,000 to 13,000 affected homeowners, the city said.Either way, City Hall immediately appealed Ozzi’s decision and won a stay on the order, allowing the Mamdani administration to forge ahead with its tax collection while the suit goes through the appeals process. Joshua Wurtzel, a real-estate lawyer and partner at Schlam Stone & Dolan LLP, said the lawsuit – if successful – cou...