Rollout of New York City’s Second-Home Tax Is Confusing Some Residents

The rollout of New York City’s contentious new pied-à-terre tax started with a notification from Mayor Zohran Mamdani on social media: “You’ve got mail.”

Letters were on the way to people who have a second home in New York worth more than $5 million, the mayor explained in a post last Thursday. “Our records indicate the property above may be subject to the new surcharge,” read the letters being sent to property owners.

Then, the next day, in accordance with the new law, the city’s Department of Finance published the names and addresses associated with nearly one million properties — mostly one-to-three-family homes and condos, along with co-op buildings and some individual co-op apartments from those buildings. It noted that “the roll includes, but is not limited to, those properties that may be subject to the surcharge.”

The second-home tax is part of the latest push by state and local leaders to iron out some of the inequities in the upstairs-downstairs city by taxing wealthy part-time residents. Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the new tax this year with enthusiastic backing from Mr. Mamdani who ran on an affordability platform.

City officials stressed that the publication of taxable properties happens twice a year and is required by state law “for public inspection.” The information already was available to anyone who wanted to see it and was compiled “based on the parameters set by the state law,” said Jae Ko, a spokesman for the city’s Department of Finance.

“Nothing unusual here,” Ms. Hochul said at an event on Tuesday. “Every building, property tax debt is public. Always has been.”

Although the lists published last week went online with little fanfare from state and local officials, they did so at a moment when some wealthy people in the city have said that they feel under attack.

“Pied-a-terror,” read a headline on the cover of The New York Post. (The second-home tax is also known as the pied-à-terre tax.) Criticism spread on social media. In some circles, WhatsApp groups lit up with news of the lists, and worry over being perceived as wealthy merely by appearing on the lists ensued. People searched for themselves and friends and colleagues, as though it was a WikiLeaks dump.

Warnings went out to neighbors to be on the lookout for letters about potential new taxes to be paid. “You may need to file for an exemption,” read one post tucked among neighborhood notices for a free goldfish and a search for beading materials on the Brooklyn Facebook group Park Slope Together.

The publication of the lists, and the notices mailed to residents, are among the first steps the city has taken to enforce the tax, which is based on an archaic property tax assessment system.

The city first uses an assessment measure called “market value” to determine which homes may be eligible. Condos and co-op second homes with a “market value” of over $1 million are eligible to be taxed, as are smaller homes over $5 million.

Critics have noted that market value as defined by the city often does not correlate with how much condos and co-ops may actually be worth. The city is working on developing a new valuation system for the tax that would go into effect in 2028.

Anxiety about the lists — and what they could mean — abounded this week. Some people were also startled to know their names appeared alongside notable ones, such as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, the directors Woody Allen and Spike Lee, former Mayor Bill de Blasio and the fashion icon Anna Wintour.

City Councilwoman Gale Brewer spotted her name tied to the brownstone she owns.

“I’ve been living there 365 days a year since 1994,” said Ms. Brewer, who said she did not own another home. “I can’t figure out why I was listed.”

She had been in favor of the pied-à-terre tax, but she said she was rethinking her support after hearing from angry constituents worried about their names turning up on the lists, too. City officials need to handle the rollout better, she said.

“People are already on edge about everything — property insurance, safety, life, just everything,” Ms. Brewer said. “It’s unfortunate.”

The lists cover most non-rental residential properties in the city, not only those likely to owe the tax. The vast majority fall below the value thresholds required to make owners eligible for the tax. Only about 24,000 rise above them, according to an analysis by The New York Times. But even then, the surcharge would apply only if the property isn’t the owner’s primary residence.

Some residents said the city mistakenly sent them letters saying they owed a second-home tax on property they have lived in as a primary residence.

Letters about potential new taxes were not being sent to everyone on the lists, a spokesman for the Department of Finance said. And the city has instituted a number of methods to help with appeals including more 311 operators and an online appeals-filing process.

City officials said 17,000 letters had already been sent with notifications about tax bills. At a news conference on Wednesday, Mr. Mamdani indicated that the city had initially targeted properties that were trusts or limited liability corporations as a way of sorting out whether they were primary residences for owners.

“The governor proposed the pied-à-terre tax to help the city close its budget gap,” said Jen Goodman, a spokeswoman for Ms. Hochul, in a statement. “The enabling legislation — which the city played a significant role in drafting — only requires that they include this new tax in the public tax rolls already available. Any questions about the way in which this program is being implemented or publicized can only be answered by City Hall.”

Some residents were troubled by what they thought was a short timeline for appeals: Aug. 21 for residential properties or Aug. 24 for co-ops.

Karen Young was surprised when she opened a letter this week and found a notice that she might be subject to a “surcharge,” as the letter called the new tax, on her Upper West Side home, of about $43,000. The five-story house, steps away from Central Park, is the only home she has lived in since 1997. She said she also owns an office in Paris. (City officials said they could not comment on individual cases.)

“I have been a primary resident of New York City since 1972,” said Ms. Young, who spent years restoring her Upper West Side home to its late 19th-century grandeur. “Everything — voter registration, driver’s license, jury duty — all right here. What were they thinking?” Property records show that she transferred ownership to a trust in 2024, but she said she and her husband were the sole beneficiaries.

“I’m insulted and angry and honestly am very hurt,” Ms. Young said. “That probably sounds silly, but I love this city.” Ms. Young, who also shared her frustration with Ms. Brewer and The New York Post, started her appeal on Monday evening and immediately was frustrated with the steps.

She was asked to submit a property deed and other proof, which she needed to ask her lawyer to retrieve because she purchased the home in 1981. But she said he was on vacation. Ms. Young was able to arrange for his assistant to help assemble the documents for an hourly fee. But when she forwarded some of the links to upload paperwork, she found they didn’t work.

She started filling out fields on the website until she went to bed. When she woke in the morning and logged in again, she found none of her work had been saved.

“I’m feeling so helplessly trapped,” she said.