NYC Tax Carries Extra Hit On Wealthy

By James Fanelli, Deborah Acosta and Caitlin Ostroff

Trump administration special envoy Steve Witkoff and several other wealthy property owners are getting an expensive surprise, courtesy of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s new pied-à-terre tax.

As the Mamdani administration looks to levy the new tax and increases scrutiny of where the city’s elite reside, some face an unwelcome double whammy as they also stand to lose an abatement that shaves thousands of dollars off their annual tax bills, premised on the idea that their New York City apartments were primary residences.

Witkoff recently had to part with his own $24,000-a-year abatement on a multimilliondollar Manhattan apartment—a perk his representatives said he didn’t realize he was receiving.

A spokeswoman for Witkoff said that he paid the city nearly $78,000 for the years he wasn’t eligible for the abatement.

Others are in a similar pickle. According to a Journal analysis of public records in New York and Florida, which has seen an influx of wealthy New Yorkers in recent years, some Sunshine State residents have been receiving the city’s abatement for years despite being ineligible for it. They include real-estate executive Lee Millstein and hedge-fund honcho Ruben Kliksberg.

Witkoff, 69 years old, has made a waterfront estate in Miami Beach his primary residence since 2019, when he registered to vote there and filed a declaration of domicile— a Florida document attesting that his permanent and primary residence was in the state. His wife, who is separated from him, lived in their Manhattan apartment until 2023, when she relocated to her own apartment in Miami Beach, records show. The Manhattan property continued to receive the abatement.

Aside from losing the perk, Witkoff will also have to pay $101,000 annually to the city to cover the new pied-à-terre surcharge, bringing his total property tax bill to more than double what he pays now.

Witkoff and his wife never received notice from the condo’s property manager that they needed to report that their primary residence had changed to Florida, said his lawyer, Robert Pollack.

The pied-à-terre tax targets homes valued at $5 million or more where the owner’s primary residence is outside New York City, part of Mamdani’s campaign promise to increase taxes on the wealthy.

To carry out the implementation, the city has added positions focused on checking whether properties are second homes, as well as evaluating appeals.