Taxpayer Advocate Diana Leyden Is a First for New York City
Dec. 23, 2015 —
In October of 2015, New York City followed the lead of the federal and many state governments when it hired Diana Leyden as the city’s first Taxpayer Advocate. Hers is a daunting mission: to help New Yorkers resolve disputes over how much they owe – or don’t owe – in property taxes, fines and penalties. Before taking the New York job, Leyden spent 16 years teaching at the University of Connecticut Law School and running its tax clinic, which provides free legal service to help low-income earners resolve their tax controversies.
“The main part of what we’ll be doing [here in New York] is property taxes,” Leyden told Habitat. “Much of what we’re finding is flaws in how processes run – or don’t run. It was very sobering to see how we’re frozen in time, as far as the way the city’s property taxes are set up. We’re back to 1981” – a reference to the year the city’s four property tax classes were established, a source of undying controversy, especially for residents of co-op and condo buildings. Then Leyden offered a radical notion: “Maybe the whole thing needs to be scrapped.”
Working with a small staff, Leyden has hit the ground running. By Christmas, the office will have fielded more than 50 complaints – and closed 19 of them. In one case, an individual property owner’s query to the Department of Finance (DOF) got lost in the shuffle. His claim that his property had been misclassified was eventually upheld, and a refund was issued.
The idea of a city Taxpayer Advocate germinated in September of 2014, according to Jacques Jiha, commissioner of the DOF. “The genesis of this project basically arose from the fact that we received a number of complaints from taxpayers when I first started and...realized many of them were legitimate,” he said. “I said to myself, there’s a need to have an independent body, an independent advocate within the agency.”
Adds Sonia Alleyne, press officer for the taxpayer advocate, “There were cases that needed to be corrected, but weren’t getting corrected. People with money and good lawyers could fight [DOF rulings], but others didn’t have an ear here. The commissioner realized we needed somebody to fight for these people – but also to figure out what needs to be changed inside the DOF system. We want taxpayers to pay what they owe – not one penny more and not one penny less. And they should understand why they’re paying it. Customer service is part of our mission.”
Since his appointment in April of 2014, Jiha has taken steps to change the culture of DOF, which rarely used to hear complaints if any deadlines were missed by the taxpayer. Under Jiha, DOF has made corrections dating from as far back as 2007, returning more than $2 million to city taxpayers.
Changing the system is a big part of Leyden’s job. “People can contact us if they’re aware of systemic problems that happen over and over again,” she said. Here’s important background and contact information:
- The office recently posted the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights online: http://www1.nyc.gov/site/finance/about/nyc_taxpayer_bill_of_rights.page
- For more information on the Office and services provided, taxpayers can visit http://www1.nyc.gov/site/finance/about/taxpayer-advocate.page
- The Office of the Taxpayer Advocate is located at 253 Broadway, 6th floor, New York, NY 10007; the phone number is 212-312-1800.