Overview
- The surtax was created in Albany in May and took effect July 1 as an annual levy on certain non‑primary residences, applying to houses over $5 million and co‑ops/condos over $1 million.
- City Hall published a searchable supplemental roll of roughly 960,000 properties and mailed preliminary notices to about 17,000 owners, prompting many longtime residents to say they were wrongly flagged.
- The Department of Finance’s verification portal asks for documents such as recent tax returns, utility records and in some cases Social Security numbers and trust agreements, and owners face short rebuttal windows in late August with formal appeals running into next year.
- Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the city is hiring roughly two dozen staffers to manage inquiries and appeals even as real‑estate groups, elected officials and attorneys warn of implementation errors, privacy risks and likely litigation.
- Revenue and market impacts are disputed—the city estimates up to about $500 million a year while other estimates are lower—and a Phase 2 revaluation in July 2028 that will use comparable sales could change who ultimately pays.