One Park Avenue. Image Credit: Google Maps

City Tax Appeals Tribunal determined transfer was not eligible for special reduced rate. One Park Avenue Mezz Partners LLC, a subsidiary of industry giant Vornado Realty Trust, held a 100 percent equity interest in a commercial building located at One Park Avenue in Manhattan. In March 2011, while looking to refinance the building, Vornado had that equity interest transferred in full to two new subsidiary real estate investment trusts. The compensation was roughly $5.6 million ($2.25 million in cash and $3.375 million in the form of ownership stakes in the grantee trusts). (more…)

Ellen Hoffman

Ellen Hoffman, a lawyer for 40 years, earned a JD from New York University School of Law in 1977 and an LLM in Taxation in 1978. She began her career in tax law at a private firm in New York City, when after 11 years, she felt the urge to do something different. Hoffman stumbled upon a posting for a tax attorney position with the New York City Department of Finance and, as Hoffman said, “the rest is history.”

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96 Wythe Street in Brooklyn, Image Credit: CityLand.

Court found that application was not filed within the statutory time period of one year. On January 27, 2016, the New York State Supreme Court denied a Brooklyn developer’s petition to reverse a Department of Finance decision to not grant a tax abatement. The Developer, 96 Wythe Acquisitions, filed the petition after the Department of Finance denied the application for the tax abatement because it was not filed within the mandatory one-year requirement. 96 Wythe Acquisition LLC filed plans with the NYC Department of Buildings back in April 2013 to construct a hotel in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. (more…)

The “421-a Extended Affordability Program Rules” would provide a 10 to 15 year extension to eligible buildings enrolled in the program prior to its expiration. On March 14, 2016, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development proposed two agency rules to extend the 421-a real property tax exemption program for those who already had been benefiting from the program prior to its expiration in June 2015. The State authorized HPD to promulgate the new rules via State Law from June 26, 2015.

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NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer. Image credit: Office of the New York City Comptroller

Audit determined the Department of Finance improperly gave abatements to condos and co-ops owned by corporations over a four-year period.  On January 28, 2016 the Office of the City Comptroller Scott Stringer released a report of an audit conducted of the Department of Finance.  In the final report, the Comptroller’s Office found the Department of Finance wrongly gave out over $10 million worth of property tax abatements to corporate-owned condominums, co-ops, indoor parking spaces, and cabanas between fiscal years 2013 and 2016.

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