The agency that hears tax assessment appeals wants to start charging New York taxpayers for its services. The independent Tax Commission will be proposing that it charge all but Class I homeowners between $50 and $125 to review challenges to the assessments that are set by the New York City Finance Department.
The sliding fees would be based on the assessed value of the property, said president Glenn Newman.
The fee would not be collected with the application but be billed later as part of the real estate tax bill. “It would not be seemly to put a check in with the application,” Newman explained. “Frankly, we are interested in raising money for training and increasing our technological ability.”
Because of budget and personnel cuts, the commission wants to spend its time on meritorious reviews, where it says its attentions are most needed.
People who do not want a Tax Commission hearing but need to preserve their access to the courts would not be charged. “We don t want to place a barrier in the way of people going to court, so if we are not reaching the merits, there would not be a fee,” Newman said.
This year, applications are flat with between 41,000 and 42,000 received by the March cutoff date. Last year, the agency received 42,294 applications to review 134,014 tax lots and eventually held hearings or reviewed papers on over 21,600 applications covering 90,364 tax lots. The Tax Commission prepared another 12,538 cases involving 28,764 tax lots that were not pursued at the hearing.
Michael Lippman, President of the Real Estate Tax Review Bar Association and a partner with Lippman, Krasnow & Kelton, LLP, said, “I agree the Tax Commission needs more money to function but I m not sure that a fee to challenge one s assessment is the proper way to raise the money. At this point,” Lippman continued, “it s all discussion and when it is formally proposed the Association will have to discuss it. It is likely that we will have to oppose it because it could open up an administrative Pandora s Box.”
In addition to billing mistakes that could show up as a tax lien, Lippman said there are currently fees for programs, including 421a and J-51 applications that were initially targeted to those programs, but turned into just another revenue stream for the city.