City homeowners are losing out on valuable property tax breaks when they move within the five boroughs because the administration’s bean counters don’t process the paperwork on time, The Post has learned.
“I call it the New York City moving tax: you’re penalized for moving,” said City Councilman Vincent Ignizio (R-SI). “This is just another burden that the city’s making the taxpayers bear unnecessarily.”
Homeowners who relocate within the city don’t get their tax breaks during the year they move because the Department of Finance won’t update their addresses until the following fiscal year — and won’t credit them for the year they went without the break.
Ignizio said he is proposing legislation that would require the city to credit homeowners for tax breaks they lose because of a move.
The lapse cost Staten Island homeowner Anthony Braccia $4,701 when he moved from Brooklyn in 2011.
Braccia paid a tax bill of $7,679 on the home he purchased in November 2011. Had the city honored his three tax exemptions — one for being a senior citizen, one for being a veteran and a break on school taxes under the STAR program — he would have paid $2,978 for the year, according to Ignizio.
The exemptions are calculated based on an individual home’s assessed value, so they vary from one property to the next.
Braccia’s exemptions were reinstated the following year — but only after he notified the agency of his move. They would not have been restored automatically, Ignizio said.
“I just don’t understand why I would be denied these exemptions on Staten Island if I had them in Brooklyn,” Braccia said. “It’s not fair, it’s a lot of money.”
Braccia alerted Ignizio to the problem, prompting the councilman to draft the legislation. Ignizio said the little-known rip-off is par for the course with Finance.
“It makes no sense,” Ignizio said. “Why do you have to wait until July 1 to get your rightful exemption on a home in New York City?”
He also said Finance rarely fixes these problems unless under pressure.
“It seems like people on the outside — elected officials or constituents — have to always find ways in which the taxpayers are being shortchanged and not the agency responsible for ensuring that they’re not.”
Finance spokesman Owen Stone said, “If you have an exemption on your home, and you sell the house, the exemption ends.
”That’s the law. I certainly hope the New York Post isn’t publishing an article criticizing Finance for following the law.”
The personal tax-exemption system has long been a weak spot for oversight by the Finance Department. After The Post reported in 2011 that the agency did not require background checks before granting the tax breaks, officials tightened the process.
Last year Finance nixed 4,373 bogus applications from New Yorkers falsely claiming to be veterans, disabled and/or seniors.