New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has a message for New York's wealthy second-home owners: "Check your mailbox."
"If you have a second home in New York City worth more than $5M, check your mailbox when you're back in the five boroughs — because you've got mail," Mamdani wrote on X Thursday. "Today, we sent notification letters to property owners, letting them know that our new pied-à-terre tax is coming soon."
The pied-à-terre tax, which passed in May, levies an annual tax on non-primary homes valued at least $5 million. The progressive tax starts at 0.8% and increases to 1.3% for properties valued at $25 million or more. City and state officials have estimated the tax could raise $500 million annually and would apply to over 11,000 homes.
"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," Mamdani said Thursday.
New York's Department of Finance sent letters notifying property owners who might be subject to the tax, the mayor's office said in a press release. The city also launched a dedicated webpage to support property owners with answers to frequently asked questions and a tool to help them determine whether they are eligible for or exempt from the tax.
The controversial tax is expected to impact a number of billionaires with second homes in New York City, including Jeff Bezos, President Donald Trump, and Jay-Z and Beyoncé.
Mamdani specifically called out billionaire Ken Griffin, CEO of Citadel, in a video promoting the tax earlier this year. Mamdani took the video in front of a penthouse that Griffin paid $238 million for in 2019. Griffin, who lives in Miami, also owns other units in New York City.
Based on Business Insider's math, when Griffin checks his mailboxes, he could find he owes between $1.3 million and $1.4 million for his pied-à-terre tax bill.
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Kelsey is a senior reporter for Business Insider, where she covers business and tech news as well as stories about travel, luxury, and consulting.Her feature story "Disaster at 18,200 feet" received awards from the New York Press Club and the North American Travel Journalists Association, as well as honorable mention from the Society of American Travel Writers. It was also included on Longreads' and Pocket's best of 2022 lists. She has also received an American Journalism Online Award for her coverage on missing and murdered Indigenous people in Wyoming.She's appeared on CBS, NPR, NBC, and other outlets to discuss her work. She previously worked on the world news desk at the BBC in London and received a master's in journalism from Northwestern University.She can be reached by email at [email protected] or via the encrypted-messaging app Signal @kelseyv.21.Popular storiesDisaster on Denali: Inside a 1,000-foot fall on America's highest peakThrifting is more popular than ever. It's also never been worse.Rolex wouldn't service the vintage watch my mom inherited. Watchmakers say it happens all the time.A tiny, invasive bug and the climate crisis are changing how guitars are made, and shifting the course of music historyThe tourism free-for-all is overGovernment-run boarding schools were founded to 'civilize' Native Americans. Hundreds of dead children remain buried in the schoolyard graves.Meet the Texas minister who helps fly dozens of women to New Mexico every month to get abortionsPeople are flocking to Colorado for the great outdoors, but the air pollution is so bad, it's forcing many to stay insideInside Kabul: An aid worker reveals the devastating chaos that erupted during the US exit from Afghanistan
