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From the
Forum:
Nearly 100 mixed-use borough buildings have been improperly assessed by the Department of Finance and therefore taxed at an incorrect, lower rate, according to an audit released this week by City Comptroller Scott Stringer.
Prompted by the report’s findings, Finance has already begun to correct the tax status of the 97 buildings in Queens that auditors determined were misclassified.
According to Stringer, properties in New York City are given one of four tax classes: Class 1 are one- to three-unit buildings, primarily used for residential purposes; Class 2 are all other residential properties; Class 3 are properties owned by utilities and special franchises; and Class 4 are all other properties not in Class 1, 2, or 3. The audit examined whether Class 1 mixed-use buildings in Queens were properly assessed and taxed by the Department of Finance as of May 2015.
Auditors identified 97 buildings that were misclassified as Tax Class 1 mixed-use buildings, and taxed at a lower rate than they should have been. DOF agreed that 78 properties should be taxed at 45 percent of market value, instead of the residential rate of six percent at which they had been taxed, and that 19 properties required additional interior inspection, Stringer noted.
In total, Stringer’s office estimated that, after the changes are made, the City will bring in an additional $1.28 million in taxes over the next five years.
Auditors also found that 33 of the misclassified buildings in Queens had been inspected by DOF assessors within the last three years – raising questions about the agency’s training and inspection process.
From the
NY Post:
New York City property taxes are poised to continue rising.
New tentative assessments released Wednesday show that the market value of the city’s 1,053,949 properties jumped 6.6 percent to $914.8 billion.
For property owners, that translates — once again — into larger bills.
The average owner of a single-family home is expected to shell out $168 more, or $4,598, once the Finance Department finalizes the assessments and the bills for fiscal 2015 go out in July.
That 3.8 percent hike will make co-op and condo owners envious.
The average tax bill for co-ops is going up $329, or 5.5 percent, to $6,247.
Condo owners are getting whacked even harder, a 7.4 percent hike averaging $552 to $7,987.
Owners of one- and two-family homes have until March 17 to challenge their assessments. Others have until March 3.
From the
Daily News:
On Autumn Ave. in working class Cypress Hills sits a modest $462,000 brick two-family home with a postage-stamp sized front yard and a warning sign, “These Premises Protected by Video Surveillance.”
The owner pays $6,919 in property taxes.
Six miles away on Fourth St. on one of upscale Park Slope’s most exclusive blocks sits an impressive $2.5 million four-story brownstone with a lush backyard garden, four bedrooms and three baths.
The owner of that lovely home pays $6,209 in property taxes — $710 less than his fellow Brooklynite, whose plot sits in one of the city’s poorest zip codes.
When it comes to property taxes, New York City homeowners live in an upside-down “Alice In Wonderland” world — a system that often favors the rich and punishes lower- and middle-income property owners, a Daily News investigation has found.
Because of the bizarre way the city taxes residential property, owners in upscale gentrified New York neighborhoods like Park Slope, Brooklyn Heights and the upper East Side often wind up paying less than owners in hardscrabble zip codes like East New York and Canarsie in Brooklyn, South Jamaica in Queens and Mott Haven in the Bronx.
Property taxes collected under this unequal system are the city’s biggest single source of money, accounting for 40% of all revenue and totaling $18.7 billion this year.
By law, the city is supposed to treat everyone the same, assessing taxes based on what the Finance Department determines as the “estimated market value" of a property and then applying a uniform 6% assessment ratio to that number.
Records show it doesn’t happen that way.
At the request of The News, the city’s Independent Budget Office performed an analysis of tens of thousands of property tax records citywide and found “wide disparities" in how the Finance Department nails down its version of “market value.”
From
Bayside Patch:
When tax assessments of some Queens co-ops jumped as much as 147 percent last year, there was at first sticker shock.
The tax increases were so staggering that many hoped the figures were simple mistakes which could be corrected.
But no mistake was admitted by the Dept. of Finance until lawsuits were threatened against them, Freedom of Information disclosures were filed, and co-op presidents and local politicians went on a protest and press conference circuit that the press called a “tax revolt.”
A reason for the crushing overvaluations was finally given in April: a computer glitch. The Dept. of Finance offered to cap valuation increases at 50 percent, to be fazed into individual tax rates over five years.
But many found that reason to be outlandish. After reportedly dropping the excuse in media reports, and in an open hearing before the City Council, the DOF disavowed the explanation last week.
“Nothing failed,” said DOF Spokesman Owen Stone.
