NYC gives second-home owners until Oct. 17 to claim pied-à-terre tax relief

Owners of high-value second homes in New York City have until Oct. 17 to seek an exemption from the new pied-à-terre tax. The Mamdani administration had set Tuesday as the cutoff. This is the latest in a series of extensions.

The Department of Finance had received roughly 9,300 requests as of Tuesday. The agency found that more than 5,200 of those homes are primary residences and owe nothing, which works out to a 55% approval rate. The city originally identified about 17,000 properties as likely subject to the surcharge. Some 4,000 more applications are still being processed, so the final count should take about another week.

Who qualifies for a pied-à-terre tax exemption

State lawmakers approved the surcharge, and Gov. Kathy Hochul signed it in May. It applies to one-, two- and three-family homes with a Department of Finance market value of at least $5 million. It also applies to condos and co-ops worth $1 million or more. In both cases the home is taxed only if it is not the owner’s primary residence. To be exempt, an owner must prove that someone lives there as a main home. That person can be the owner, a close family member or a renter who occupies the home full time.

Why the pied-à-terre tax deadline changed

According to finance department spokesperson Jae Ko, the extension is a response to a lawsuit brought by attorney Randy Mastro. Mastro was second in command at City Hall under Mayors Rudy Giuliani and Eric Adams. Last week his suit led Justice Wayne Ozzi, a state judge on Staten Island, to order the city to redo the entire process. The city appealed at once, and on Monday it asked the appellate division to pause that order. Two other suits, both in a Long Island court, argue that the tax is unconstitutional.

In Ko’s view, the legal fights have “created a lot of unnecessary confusion,” and the new date gives owners “the time and information they need to apply.”

With so many homes now exempt, Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s forecast of $500 million in revenue looks less certain. He has pitched that money as help with a projected $5 billion budget gap. Hochul’s own $500 million figure assumed 13,000 homes and did not count condos or co-ops. City Comptroller Mark Levine later calculated that 11,200 properties could produce the same sum. He added that exemptions would cut it to between $340 million and $380 million. On Tuesday his spokesperson said he has no updated estimate.