New York City Preparing to Restructure Property Tax System

The New York City Finance Commissioner, Preston Niblack, recently announced the finance department’s plan to restructure the City’s property tax system. Bloomberg Tax reports that at the recent Department of Finance’s Tax Representatives and Practitioners Program, Niblack said, “Reforming such a complex system will not be easy, but the bottom line is property taxes account for nearly half of all city tax revenues. For our city’s future, we have to get this system right.”

At least the City’s finance department will not be starting from scratch. During his time in office, former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio formed an Advisory Commission on Property Tax Reform. Its findings were never adopted as they were released just prior to de Blasio leaving office. Niblack said the City will start here to create a more transparent and explainable system.

One of the sticking points then, and now, will be dealing with the expired 421-a tax incentive program, or Affordable House NY Program, for rental properties.

Regardless of how, it seems the overall goal is to, “make the treatment of residential homeowners’ properties fairer, more consistent, and more understandable to taxpayers.”

See full article: NYC Officials Preparing Overhaul of ‘Arcane’ Property Tax System (bloombergtax.com)

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Thank you to Nancy DeBiasi for this week’s Tax Tracker!