NYC Might Actually Raise Taxes on Luxury Apartments
As Manhattan continues its transformation into a land of empty luxury apartments owned by absentee billionaires, support has grown for a tax on these sorts of second homes, for motherfuckers. Now, our wish may be coming true.
Not the "Confiscate every billionaire's second apartment and turn it to a homeless shelter" wish, but a step in the right direction, at least. The Wall Street Journal reports that communist New York mayor Bill De Blasio may be preparing to actually try to impose a new "mansion tax" on luxury apartments—the story suggests it would be something like doubling the current 1% tax on sales over $1 million, and funneling that money towards the city's ambitious affordable housing goals. How did this good tax idea get so plausible? Even powerful developers are reportedly supporting it, in some form.
Real-estate executives said that any successful proposal would likely be more complex than a simple, broad-based increase in the mansion tax and the additional proceeds would go to the city. For example, it might impose a higher tax on top-level sales—say, at least $10 million—than on lower-priced sales.
Developers seem to prefer this to higher taxes on rental development. Fine! Good! Push it through immediately! This is a measure of just how absurdly well the well-off in our city are doing now: developers don't even think a hefty new luxury real estate tax would hurt the luxury real estate market.
Okay, do it.
