Marvin Ciporen, an 82-year-old Park Slope resident, was surprised by the letter in his mailbox last week.
The Department of Finance was notifying Ciporen he may fall under New York City's new pied-à-terre tax — one of Mayor Zohran Mamdani's initiatives to put more of the tax burden on the city's wealthiest.
"Today, we sent notification letters to property owners, letting them know that our new pied-à-terre tax is coming soon," Mamdani posted to X in late July.
"The best city in the world deserves the best parks, libraries, and schools in the world. That's only possible when we all pay our fair share."
But there's a problem. Pied-à-terre, French for "foot on the ground," means a secondary home or residence. The new tax plans to"levy an annual surcharge
on one to three family homes, condominiums and co-ops valued above $5 million when owners have a separate primary residence outside of New York City," the city said at the time of its unveiling.
Ciporen, alongside his wife, Ellen, 85, have lived at their house since the 1970s; it is their primary residence.
"I should reiterate — I strongly support things like the pied-à-terre tax," Ciporen said. "That said, the burden of identifying who should be subject to the tax shouldn't fall on ordinary taxpayers."
Confusion has clouded the tax rollout as others like Ciporen have reported receiving letters despite the property being their primary home. Officials say that homeowners can use a city website to prove the property is a primary residence and that letters were sent to taxpayers who may be obligated to pay the pied-à-terre.
"The Department of Finance sent informational resources to homeowners to ensure that they understood the tax, that they understood the options before them, and also, if they did not believe it to apply to them, that they had the time in order to be able to appeal," Mayor Zohran Mamdani said at an unrelated press conference last week.
“You may have received a letter because our records did not allow us to confirm that the property is being used as a primary residence," the DOF said on its website. "Receiving a letter does not necessarily mean that you will owe the surcharge."
In the case of the Ciporens, the couple bought the Park Slope home over five decades ago for $80,000. It now has an assessed property value of over $5 million.
"Park Slope has gone from a place where you couldn't move in because you couldn't get a mortgage to a place where you couldn't move in because you can't afford it," Ciporen said. "We could never afford to buy a home in the area now."
Over the weekend, the city extended the deadline for homeowners to submit documents, giving residents until Sept. 18 to apply.
Out of the 17,000 letters the DOF says they sent out, 4,800 exemption applications were started, with 2,000 now submitted, according to the city.
"If you want people to have faith in government being able to do things well, then government needs to think it out," Ciporen said.
"How you do things matters a lot — and that should always be a consideration when government acts."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NYC pied-à-terre tax letters sent to owners. But not everyone will pay
