281–290 of 459 posts
Edit: Actually, as a property tax of nonprimary residences, is this not also effectively also a Landlording tax? Will my landlord's tax bill go up because he's not residing in my building, if my building is above the threshold assessed value of $1mm? Or are >$1mm "multi-family homes" (significant % of housing of New Yorkers in BK/Queens) exempt and this only applies to condos?
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So if you're spending your inheritance living the high life, that economic activity benefits a lot of other people. Still a net positive in my view. I get the political power concern, and money = power at a certain point. But I'd rather work on getting money out of politics than putting limits on what people can decide will happen to their assets after they die.
I'm curious how you envision money ever leaving politics. I hear this phrase often and every time I do it feels more and more nonsensical. Politics is what we call the social aspect of resource management (it's often called "political economy" for this reason). The only way I can see to remove money from politics is to create a society that has no money at all. I assume that isn't what you mean?
There's so many indirect ways of influencing politics given lots of money - alternative media, buying out local news, controlling national news.. making entertainment media of your own ideology. Fund interesting groups around particular topics. Give poor Ivy League grads a job and groom them for higher office.. oh wait.
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So if you're spending your inheritance living the high life, that economic activity benefits a lot of other people. Still a net positive in my view. I get the political power concern, and money = power at a certain point. But I'd rather work on getting money out of politics than putting limits on what people can decide will happen to their assets after they die.
I'm curious how you envision money ever leaving politics. I hear this phrase often and every time I do it feels more and more nonsensical. Politics is what we call the social aspect of resource management (it's often called "political economy" for this reason). The only way I can see to remove money from politics is to create a society that has no money at all. I assume that isn't what you mean?
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The fairest and easiest to realize wealth tax is on inheritance. It is great to want to give your kids a headstart in the world, it is terrible for them and the people around them to set them up for life.
The federal estate tax is 40%. NYC adds in another 16%.
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> If it turns out the uber-rich don't mind paying and this becomes a cash cow for the city, that creates incentives for the city to cater to them and try and get more uber-rich people to have second homes in the city. The tax is reasonably small enough that I wouldn't expect a lot of wealthy people from divesting from their properties, but it's probably going to make them think twice about buying new properties. That…
"If you make the tax too high it starts discouraging the behavior you're taxing, which can paradoxically reduce overall tax revenue." I am generally against more taxes, but the structure of this one is quite good in terms of the incentives. If wealthy people who only live in the city part-time stay in hotels instead of buying second homes, the net effect should be to increase the cost of hotel rooms and reduce the co…
Reducing the cost of $5M+ homes will slightly help some wealthy people who live in NYC, and there will be a modest trickle-down effect into less expensive properties. But I thought the goal was to generate tax revenue from the taxes, which wouldn't happen to the extent they end up in the hands of NYC residents.
EDIT: apparently it hits all homes over $1M, which means it will hit more homes but also won't generate revenue to the extent the homes end up being owned by New Yorkers.
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"everyone's taxes will increase" is not true because lot of newer apartments don't get the chance to undervalue.
New apartments? NYC? I jest. Im not sure you understand what Im saying though. Wouldnt normal people's taxes go up because the appraisal changes are global? Say, a primary residence bought for $750k.
No. Our town finally reassessed everyone after not doing it since before COVID. Assessments doubled and everyone freaked out, but the tax levy didn't change, so the amount of actual tax basically didn't change; $160M in taxes for 20k people is still $160M in taxes for 20k people. People just now pay less tax per $1k house value, but for higher house values.
I support this. The purpose of a home is for people who live in the area to live in, not to be a speculative investment. This is part of the reason we have a housing shortage in the US: 20% of available homes are purchased by investors, which squeezes the supply. Airbnb has made this worse. There are areas near me where during the COVID ZIRP, people snatched up like 70% of the homes to turn into rentals. Those places…
“Some of the supply of housing that is permitted to exist is used a short-term rentals rather than as actual housing” may be “part” of the problem, but its a vanishingly small part, in that if you deal with the basic building problem, there would be no actual problem, even if the short-term rental thing continued.
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Just curious what you think the correct solution is? You're rich, you have a kid, you die when the kid is 2yrs old. So they get nothing? 12? 22? 32?. Is there some "correct" number? If you're raising them in some $100m home do they get booted out and put in a tenement? On the other hand, most people die closer to 75-80 and their kids are 50+. Leaving inheritance to them isn't really spoiling them as they are alread a…
In the US, the inheritance taxes don't kick in until $15M ($30M for married couples). Even at 2 years old, a child can inherit more money than most people will make in their lifetime before a dime is paid to the IRS.
I don't care about estate and inheritance taxes much but many people do and it empirically drives behavior.
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> If it turns out the uber-rich don't mind paying and this becomes a cash cow for the city, that creates incentives for the city to cater to them and try and get more uber-rich people to have second homes in the city. The tax is reasonably small enough that I wouldn't expect a lot of wealthy people from divesting from their properties, but it's probably going to make them think twice about buying new properties. That…
Land value taxes don't discourage desirable behavior when raised. Property taxes might discourage construction but if land values are high enough then property taxes approximate land value taxes. Raising income tax on the other hand discourages working even when it is set very low. This is one which ought to be lowered if anything. tl;dr it doesnt work the same way for every tax.
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Well, you need to read the rest too: "While the tax seems large, experts say the city’s antiquated assessment and valuation system dramatically undervalues properties, reducing the burden. City valuations can often be 10% or less of the true market value, they said." It also mentions they plan to adjust property valuations in coming years, and when the valuations go up the rates will go down: "After the valuation adj…
Taxes has no income tax. NYC plus ny state has income tax at close to 10%.
That's as may be, and for residents of NYC that's impactful.
The new law targets second homes, which are generally defined as a residence which is not your primary residence. Meaning that the folks affected are generally not NYC (and often not NY state) residents, so the NYC/NY State income tax is irrelevant, as the folks affected don't pay those income taxes.