Co-op / Condo Tax-Abatement Filing Deadline Is Approaching for First-Timers
March 15, 2013 — New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Feb. 1 officially renewed the belated the co-op / condo tax abatement that residential cooperatives and condominiums have relied on since 1997 to help equalize the tax burden between them and single-family homes. Yay. In the hoopla, however, a little-notice April 1 deadline might get missed. That's the due date to submit the application form for any new co-op and condo development filing for the abatement for the first time. And an additional caution: That fast-closing window is for not only for the current tax year but for the upcoming one as well.
What do new co-op or condo boards have to do? Go the the Cooperative and Condominium Forms page at the Department of Finance website and either download the form in PDF and print out a hard copy to fill out and mail, or follow the directions to open the form as a Microsoft Excell spreadsheet. Note that the latter requires you to copy your completed form onto a blank CD. Whether sending a paper form or a CD, you mail it to the same place: NYC Department of Finance, Coop/CondoAbatements, 59 Maiden Lane, 24th Floor, NewYork, NY 10038.
Co-op boards, or their managing agents, fill out the form on behalf of the whole cooperative, obviously, but the same holds true for condo boards, who fill out the form on behalf of all their individual-tax-lot homeowners.
For the current tax year, 2012/2013, you'll be reporting data as of Jan. 5, 2012. For the 2013/2014 tax year, beginning July 1, you'll be reporting data as of Jan. 5, 2013.
No Abatement for Investment Apartments
One other big change from the new legislation is that owners not using the apartment as a primary residence will no longer be eligible for the abatement beginning with tax year 2014/2015. In the meantime, the abatement is being phased out in two stages. For 2012/2013, non-occupier owners will receive 50 percent of the amount they would received before the abatement was amended, and for 2013/2014, 25 percent. New York State views any apartment owned solely by a trust as having a non-occupier owner.
The State by now should have sent such owners a letter soon saying whether you no longer qualify for the abatement. If you wish to contest it, you'll need get your response in the mail by April 12, 2013, to NYC Co-op/Condo Abatement, P.O. Box 1194, Maplewood, NJ 07040.
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