February 1, 2019. Hedge funder Ken Griffin, who owns pricey properties in several other cities, snagged the most expensive apartment in not just New York City, but the entire country—but he reportedly doesn’t even plan to use the home as his primary residence. The sale prompted several elected officials to renew calls for a pied-à-Terre tax for secondary properties in New York City.
Senator Brad Hoylman first proposed such a tax in the state legislature in 2014, after a report from the Fiscal Policy Institute noted that a graduated tax of up to four percent on pieds-à-terre costing $5 million or more could generate at least $665 million in revenue for the city each year. Buyers of these pricey pads typically do not pay local taxes, which would go toward funding schools and other city necessities; they also pay significantly less in property taxes, thanks to New York’s byzantine property tax rules.
Find the article on Curbed New York.