4 ms·

"In the very residential and fairly affordable (for Manhattan) East Village, a pre-war, 5-story, apartment building with 15 1-bedroom units and a storefront may

"In the very residential and fairly affordable (for Manhattan) East Village, a pre-war, 5-story, apartment building with 15 1-bedroom units and a storefront may have a market value of about $5M. [...] You might end up with an assessed value of half the actual value, or $2.5M. That building would likely be subject to the Class 2 tax rate of 12.9%, meaning $322,500 in taxes every year. A typical apartment in these buildings may be $2,500 monthly, and a typical storefront may be $10,000 monthly, making annual rent revenue $570,000. In this scenario, 56.6% of your rent money goes to the city in taxes, and that’s in addition to the NYC income tax of up to 3.876%, NYS income tax of up to 8.82%, sales tax on everything you buy of 8.875%, and other hidden taxes like the MTA tax on every taxi ride you take." Holy shit. That's insane. That should be criminal.

dionidium 10y ago
Thankfully, none of those numbers match reality.
- epistasis 10y ago
  Can you provide some numbers that do match reality? I'm really curious how this works out because the tax rates are an order of magnitude higher than elsewhere. Either the assessed values are an order of magnitude lower, or there's a tremendous amount of grift that leaves NYC public schools in poor conditions despite huge amounts of tax revenue.
  - dionidium 10y ago
    Incredibly, they may be closer to reality than I thought. All buildings with more than 3 units (Class 2) are assessed at 45% of market value. https://www1.nyc.gov/site/finance/taxes/property-determining-your-assessed-value.page https://www1.nyc.gov/site/finance/taxes/property-determining...
- tsaoutourpants 10y ago
  Author here. The income tax rates reflect the highest brackets, so if you are not the 1%, you will be paying somewhat less. Regarding sales and property taxes, unfortunately the 99% is indeed paying those rates (with an exception if you live in a building with less than 3 units).
  - dionidium 10y ago
    My apologies. You're right.
imsofuture 10y ago
Why would it be criminal? The general principle of high taxes in an extremely dense urban area seems fine. All the services and infrastructure cost quite a lot.
- JoelBennett 10y ago
  But are the costs in-line with what they should be? I'd think that suburban neighborhoods would require even more infrastructure (more pipes, more roads, more power poles), yet they don't seem to suffer the same high tax rates.
- lintiness 10y ago
  let me know when you spot that government that doesn't "need" more money.
- tsaoutourpants 10y ago
  Author here. That's the kicker: it's not like we don't have to pay for out subway rides. It's not like the bridge tolls and gas prices (which are affected by tax rates) are not astronomical if you drive. And as mentioned, a transit surcharge is applied to taxi rides. It truly begs the question: what are we getting for our taxes?
  - toomuchtodo 10y ago
    > It truly begs the question: what are we getting for our taxes? http://www1.nyc.gov/site/omb/publications/finplan06-16.page http://www1.nyc.gov/site/omb/publications/finplan06-16.page
  - zzzeek 10y ago
    > are not astronomical if you drive. driving in the city adds an enormous cost to the city overall. road wear, traffic signals, air and noise pollution, decreased mobility of cabs, trucks, and emergency vehicles due to traffic jams, crashes and bike/pedestrian injuries, etc. I drive as well but it's entirely fair that drivers should have an increased tax burden in dense urban areas. > It truly begs the question: what are we getting for our taxes? thankfully you don't need to beg at all, a complete and accurate answer to this question is available to you: http://www1.nyc.gov/site/omb/publications/finplan06-16.page http://www1.nyc.gov/site/omb/publications/finplan06-16.page

dionidium 10y ago

Thankfully, none of those numbers match reality.

epistasis 10y ago
Can you provide some numbers that do match reality? I'm really curious how this works out because the tax rates are an order of magnitude higher than elsewhere. Either the assessed values are an order of magnitude lower, or there's a tremendous amount of grift that leaves NYC public schools in poor conditions despite huge amounts of tax revenue.
- dionidium 10y ago
  Incredibly, they may be closer to reality than I thought. All buildings with more than 3 units (Class 2) are assessed at 45% of market value. https://www1.nyc.gov/site/finance/taxes/property-determining-your-assessed-value.page https://www1.nyc.gov/site/finance/taxes/property-determining...
tsaoutourpants 10y ago
Author here. The income tax rates reflect the highest brackets, so if you are not the 1%, you will be paying somewhat less. Regarding sales and property taxes, unfortunately the 99% is indeed paying those rates (with an exception if you live in a building with less than 3 units).
- dionidium 10y ago
  My apologies. You're right.

imsofuture 10y ago

Why would it be criminal? The general principle of high taxes in an extremely dense urban area seems fine. All the services and infrastructure cost quite a lot.

JoelBennett 10y ago
But are the costs in-line with what they should be? I'd think that suburban neighborhoods would require even more infrastructure (more pipes, more roads, more power poles), yet they don't seem to suffer the same high tax rates.
lintiness 10y ago
let me know when you spot that government that doesn't "need" more money.
tsaoutourpants 10y ago
Author here. That's the kicker: it's not like we don't have to pay for out subway rides. It's not like the bridge tolls and gas prices (which are affected by tax rates) are not astronomical if you drive. And as mentioned, a transit surcharge is applied to taxi rides. It truly begs the question: what are we getting for our taxes?
- toomuchtodo 10y ago
  > It truly begs the question: what are we getting for our taxes? http://www1.nyc.gov/site/omb/publications/finplan06-16.page http://www1.nyc.gov/site/omb/publications/finplan06-16.page
- zzzeek 10y ago
  > are not astronomical if you drive. driving in the city adds an enormous cost to the city overall. road wear, traffic signals, air and noise pollution, decreased mobility of cabs, trucks, and emergency vehicles due to traffic jams, crashes and bike/pedestrian injuries, etc. I drive as well but it's entirely fair that drivers should have an increased tax burden in dense urban areas. > It truly begs the question: what are we getting for our taxes? thankfully you don't need to beg at all, a complete and accurate answer to this question is available to you: http://www1.nyc.gov/site/omb/publications/finplan06-16.page http://www1.nyc.gov/site/omb/publications/finplan06-16.page