Pied-à-Terre Tax Checker
New York City now charges an annual surcharge on apartments that are nobody's primary home. It began on 1 July 2026, the first bills land on 1 January 2027, and on a co-op or condo it runs from 4% to 6.5% of the city's valuation every year. This works out whether it applies to you, what it would cost, and what changes the answer.
The Department of Finance's estimated market value — not what you paid and not what it is worth.
On these numbers
$56,000 a year.
4% of $1,400,000 — about $4,667 a month, on top of the property tax you already pay and every other cost of the place. It appears on your property tax bill.
The rate you are in
4%
Because the city values the unit at $1,400,000. The rate applies to the whole value.
Per month
$4,667
What it costs to keep the place available rather than lived in.
Over five years
$280,000
If the valuation held still, which it will not — and the rules change in 2028.
What actually changes the answer
- A real tenant removes it entirely. Not a reduction — a lease of at least a year, at arm's length, to someone who lives there, takes the apartment outside the surcharge altogether. Against $4,667 a month of tax plus the rent itself, that is usually the decision, and it is why this tool asks about the tenant before it asks about the money.
- Close family count as you. A child or a parent living there as their primary home has the same effect. A cousin, a niece or a friend does not.
- Value only matters at the edges. Between the thresholds, a different valuation changes the bill in proportion. At a threshold it changes it in a step.
The rates, in full
For city fiscal years beginning 1 July 2026 and 1 July 2027, on the Department of Finance's market value. These are not marginal rates. Cross a threshold and the rate applies to the whole value, not just the part above it.
| City market value | Annual surcharge | On that value |
|---|---|---|
| $1,000,000 to just under $3,000,000 | 4% | $40,000 to $120,000a year |
| $3,000,000 to just under $5,000,000 | 5.25% | $157,500 to $262,500a year |
| $5,000,000 and up | 6.5% | $325,000a year |
Dates that matter
- Status tested on5 January 2026
For the year beginning 1 July 2026, the city looks at who was living there on 5 January 2026 — a date that has already passed. Moving in now changes next year, not this one.
- Notices sent by30 August 2026
A Notice of Surcharge means the city believes you are caught. It is a determination, not a bill, and it can be challenged.
- First bill due1 January 2027
It arrives as part of your property tax bill, or through the co-op.
- Appeal by1 March 2027 (co-ops and condos), 15 March 2027 (houses)
Tax Commission deadlines for the 2026-27 and 2027-28 years. You can challenge whether it is your primary residence and, separately, the valuation itself.
- Everything changes1 July 2028
Co-ops and condos get revalued on comparable sales, the threshold rises to $5m and the rates drop to the 0.8-1.3% house schedule. Whether that leaves you better or worse off depends entirely on the new valuation.
- Scheduled to end30 June 2031
Unless it is extended, which is how most temporary taxes end up permanent.
What this does not cover
- Ownership through layered entities. The law looks through a trust to its beneficiaries and through an LLC to its majority owners, but whether it looks through an entity that owns another entity is an open question the rules did not answer.
- Whether the city has your residence status right. It is working from its own records, and a Notice of Surcharge is a determination you can challenge — not a bill you have to accept.
- Buildings where the co-op's own allocation of value across shares is unusual, which can move an individual apartment either side of the threshold.
- The condo and co-op valuation overhaul arriving on 1 July 2028, which will reset every number on this page.
- Everything else you owe on the place — property tax itself, maintenance or common charges, and any assessment the building levies.
This is a guide to a new and unusually fiddly law, not tax or legal advice. The surcharge is assessed by the Department of Finance on its own valuation and its own record of who lives where, and there are open questions — ownership through layered entities in particular — that the rules have not settled. If you may be caught by this, speak to your accountant or a property tax attorney, and do it before the appeal deadline rather than after.
Rates and dates checked August 2026 against the statute and the Department of Finance's final rules.
Buying, selling or letting because of this?
The surcharge changes what a second home in Manhattan costs to hold, and a year-long lease removes it entirely — which is a different decision about a different apartment. Josh can tell you what a place like yours would let for, and what a building's board will accept.
The numbers are the easy part
Everything on this page is public, computable, and on the page for free. What no calculator has is the part that actually moves a New York number: what a specific board has approved before, why the line above just traded 12% under, which seller will take a February closing. That is the conversation.