Mamdani administration backtracks again on pied-à-terre tax rollout
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is backtracking again on the controversial rollout of his pied-à-terre tax.
The pool of possible homeowners who have to pay is shrinking.
It comes as the new law is facing a legal challenge in the form of a lawsuit seeking to delay its implementation that claimed the rollout was botched.
The mayor has, without admitting the rollout was messed up, reduced the number of people who may have to pay the tax and, for the second time, pushed back the deadline for people to file challenges.
"So by my last count, I think we sent out less than 20,000, 'you may be subject to' letters, I think it was about [17,000] or 18,000. And at the time that we sent those out, we did not have access to the 2025 income tax filings," Mamdani said.
That was the mayor's excuse - no up-to-date tax records - for the fact that 17,000 got letters saying they may have to pay a hefty surcharge on second homes valued at over $5 million and co-ops and condos valued at over $1 million.
New letters are now going to a reduced pool of 10,800, and the deadline for people to prove they actually live in the apartments full time has been extended to Oct. 6.
"This is tantamount to an admission that the Mamdani administration massively screwed up and that we were right all along," Randy Mastro said.
Mastro is suing the city on behalf of several homeowners who insist they are full-time residents. He says the argument that the city didn't have up-to-date tax records is like saying, "The dog ate my homework."
"They never bothered to get 2025 until after we filed this lawsuit. And guess how quickly they got it? We filed on August 7. They had the state data on who paid 2025 taxes or applied for extensions by August 12, days later," Mastro said.
CBS News New York asked the mayor what he would say to the thousands of people who got the tax letters and had to challenge them.
"Our job is to make this process as easy as possible," Mamdani said.
The new changes the mayor announced do not mean the lawsuit will be dropped. Mastro said he has to continue his efforts to protect people who may still be in the crosshairs. Many people own their apartments through limited liability corporations, or LLCs. The mayor is going after them, and even though they live in the city, they will have to go through the time-consuming challenge process.
