Pied-à-terre surcharge: does it affect your property?
A short, guided assessment of your situation under the New York pied-à-terre surcharge, enacted in the FY2027 state budget and effective July 1, 2026. Updated for the Department of Finance's final rules, adopted July 10, 2026.
Deadlines are here — act now
If you got a letter from the Department of Finance, your response deadline for this first year is September 18, 2026 — for homes, condos, and co-ops alike. You respond by uploading your documents through Finance's online system (called SmartFile), using the code printed in your letter.
The date printed on your letter is out of date. Notices were mailed showing August 21 (homes and condos) or August 24 (co-ops). On August 1, 2026, the Mayor and the Finance Commissioner extended the deadline to September 18, 2026 for everyone who received a notice, regardless of property type. Finance did not reissue the letters, so nearly every notice in circulation still shows the old date. The extension is posted at nyc.gov/npsurcharge ↗.
Being on Finance's list — or getting a letter — doesn't mean you owe the surcharge. It only means Finance thinks your property might be affected. If the home is a primary residence (yours, a family member's, or a tenant's), you won't owe it — you'll just need to show that. This tool walks you through how.
And silence isn't safety either. The surcharge can apply even if Finance never sends you anything, so if your property is high-value and not a primary residence, don't wait to be contacted. Either way, the move now is the same: figure out where you stand and gather your documents — and talk to counsel. This tool is a starting point for that conversation, not a substitute for it.
This tool
Walks you through the questions that determine whether the surcharge applies to your property.
Identifies which exemption pathway fits your situation, and generates the document checklist for it — with links to the exact Finance forms.
Points you to the right place to respond: Finance's SmartFile system for a primary-residence exemption, or the Tax Commission for a value challenge — a choice the final rules make one-way and irreversible.
Gives you your response deadline and estimates your surcharge for Phase 1 and Phase 2.
Keeps everything in your browser — no data is collected or transmitted.
Finance's own guide
Finance has posted its own eligibility guide ↗. It's built to help you respond to a letter you already received and gather the documents Finance asks for. This tool does something different and broader — it helps you understand whether the surcharge applies to you at all, which exemption fits, where to respond, and what your Phase 2 exposure may be. The two work well together.
v7.1 — August 18, 2026. Not legal advice. For your specific situation, consult counsel. This tool reflects the statute as enacted (Tax Law art. 30-C; Admin. Code ch. 32) and the Department of Finance's final rules (19 RCNY ch. 62), adopted July 10, 2026, together with Finance's published surcharge materials and filing process as of August 2026, including the August 1, 2026 extension of the first-year exemption deadline to September 18, 2026. Tax Commission procedures continue to develop; confirm current deadlines and forms before relying on them.
First, a quick question
Did you get a letter from the Department of Finance about this surcharge?
The letter is Finance's notice that it thinks your property may be affected. It has a response deadline and a code you use to upload documents. Knowing whether you have one changes what you should do next.
You have a letter
Then you're in Finance's active review — here's what that means
Your response deadline is firm — and it is later than your letter says. For this first year it is September 18, 2026, for homes, condos, and co-ops alike. Your letter most likely shows August 21 or August 24; those dates were extended on August 1, 2026 and Finance did not reissue the notices. Don't let the real date pass; a missed deadline can make Finance's determination final.
But a letter is not a bill. It means Finance thinks your property might be affected. If it's a primary residence, you won't owe the surcharge — you just have to show it, by the deadline, through the steps below.
The rest of this tool will help you figure out which exemption fits and exactly which documents to submit. Let's continue — it only takes a few minutes.
No letter yet
You can still check where you stand
There's no simple way to search Finance's list by address — but you don't really need one. The list is essentially every property over the value threshold ($5 million for a house, $1 million for a condo or co-op). So the value question this tool asks you next is, in effect, the same as "am I on the list."
Finance has said its published list "includes, but is not limited to" properties that may be affected — in plain terms, being on it isn't a decision that you owe anything, and a letter may still arrive up to August 30, 2026.
And being left off the list isn't a guarantee either. The surcharge can still apply to a covered, non-primary residence even without a letter. So it's worth understanding where you stand now.
Let's walk through it. If it turns out the surcharge could apply, you'll know what to gather and watch for.
Question 1 of 4
What type of property are we talking about?
A note on the first option: Most small condos and co-ops in NYC are Class 2 property, not Class 1 — including those in small buildings with as few as two to ten apartments. Class 1 condos are a narrow statutory category under RPTL § 1802(1)(b): originally built as condos, in a building of three stories or less, never previously on the assessment roll in another form of ownership. If you're not sure, check your property tax records (see the next screen). When in doubt, pick "Condominium apartment."
One narrow exception: A pre-1940 bungalow colony on cooperatively-owned land (RPTL § 1802(1)(c)) is excluded from the surcharge entirely as excluded property under Admin. Code § 11-3201 (cf. Tax Law § 1351(b)); if you believe your property may fall in that category, consult counsel.
Question 2 of 5
Two quick exclusions
Some property is outside the surcharge entirely — not because anyone lives there, but because it is excluded property under Admin. Code § 11-3201 (cf. Tax Law § 1351(g)). These are checked before anything about residence.
The sponsor exclusion is narrow. It runs only to the original offering-plan filer. DOF was asked in the rulemaking to extend it to successor sponsors, to projects proceeding under Attorney General no-action letters, and to bulk transfers of unsold inventory to affiliates or investors — and declined all three. If you bought unsold inventory from a sponsor, you are not the sponsor for this purpose.
Question 2 of 4
What is the Department of Finance market value for the property?
You can find this at the NYC property tax records search. Look for "market value" — not assessed value.
Enter your address or BBL (Borough-Block-Lot). On the property page, find the current fiscal year's "Market Value" — not "Assessed Value," which is lower and not what the surcharge uses.
Question 2 of 4
What is the Department of Finance market value for the unit?
You can find this at the NYC property tax records search. Look for "market value" — not assessed value. Note: this is typically well below sales value because of how state law requires DOF to value condos.
Enter your unit's address. On the property page, find the current fiscal year's "Market Value." Note this is typically far below sales value because of how state law (RPTL § 581) requires DOF to value condos using the income approach.
Question 2 of 4
Calculate your unit's imputed value
For co-ops, your unit is not separately assessed. Its Phase 1 value is imputed: the corporation's DOF market value multiplied by your unit's share of total shares (Admin. Code § 11-3201). Enter the three figures below and the tool will calculate both your imputed value and the share count at which any unit in your building crosses the $1 million threshold.
Enter the building's address. Find the current fiscal year's "Market Value" for the whole building. Your unit's share count is on your stock certificate or available from the managing agent; the total share count is in the co-op's offering plan or available from the corporation.
Enter values above to see your imputed value.
A note on mixed-use buildings: If your co-op building has significant commercial space (ground-floor retail, professional offices, etc.), the building's DOF market value reflects both the residential and commercial components — and the share-allocation formula distributes that combined value across the residential shareholders. In Phase 1, this is generally appropriate: the income approach captures the building's combined economics, and the commercial income flows back to the corporation in ways that benefit the shareholders. In Phase 2, comparable-sales valuation will capture the bundled value (what a buyer pays for the apartment, including the share of commercial economics) at the per-unit level, which raises a harder question about how the surcharge applies to residential shareholders in mixed-use buildings. If this applies to your building, the Phase 2 analysis may be a useful place to consult counsel.
Question 3 of 4
Who lives in the property?
"Lives there" means it's where they spend the majority of the year and treat as their permanent home.
Question 4 of 4
What happened, and when?
The final rules added a one-year continuation of primary-residence status for exactly these situations (19 RCNY § 62-06(b)(3)). Whether it reaches you depends on the nature of the event and its timing relative to the January 5 taxable status date.
Question 4 of 5
How is the property held?
Living there is not sufficient on its own — you also have to be a covered owner (Admin. Code § 11-3201). Entity and trust ownership have their own tests, and they are strict.
Question 5 of 5
How would you describe your NYC ties?
Pick the option that best matches your situation. This tests whether DOF's standard proof pathway will likely work for you.
Question 4 of 4
Tell us about the lease
Question 4 of 4
How is the property owned?
Entity ownership structures need to be checked to confirm the family-occupancy pathway works.
Question 4 of 4
What best describes the property's current use?
Question 4 of 4
Tell us about the sale
Mid-year sales create timing complications because the surcharge is set by ownership and use on January 5 preceding the fiscal year.
Your assessment
Your document checklist
Built for your ownership structure and exemption pathway, keyed to the rule provisions DOF will apply. Check items off as you gather them — the state is not saved, so print this page when you're done.
Choosing where to challenge
Pick one path — you generally can't use both. There are two places you can go: Finance (for a primary-residence exemption) or the Tax Commission (mainly for a value challenge). The rules make this close to a one-way door, so the choice matters.
If you take your primary-residence dispute to the Tax Commission, Finance will not separately consider an exemption application from you — and if Finance had already decided one, that decision stops counting (19 RCNY § 62-06(e)). Finance built it this way on purpose, to stop people from filing in both places.
Going the other way has its own trap: if you simply don't respond to Finance, its determination becomes final and you generally lose the right to challenge it later (Admin. Code § 11-3203(a)(4)) — unless you had already gone to the Tax Commission, which in turn requires you to contest your value at the same time. In short: don't stay silent, and choose your forum deliberately. This is a good moment to talk to counsel before filing anything.
DOF administrative appeal
19 RCNY § 62-06(b)–(c)
DeadlineFor the first year: September 18, 2026, for homes, condos, and co-ops alike (extended August 1, 2026 from the August 21 / August 24 dates printed on the notices). Otherwise, 30 days from when the notice is sent, or 30 days after the surcharge appears on the roll if no notice is sent.
RequiresA certification that the property is used as a primary residence, plus the proof in § 62-06(b)(2).
Then whatA denial is a final determination, challengeable under § 11-3206. The reviewer cannot be the person who made the initial determination.
NoteCo-op shareholders cannot join appeals together here — DOF said the Tax Commission's procedures are outside this rulemaking and that its own process involves no hearings.
Tax Commission challenge
Admin. Code § 11-3206
ReachesMarket value (§ 11-3206(b)(1)); an initial primary-residence determination — but only if you challenge market value at the same time (§ 11-3206(b)(2)); and a final primary-residence determination (§ 11-3206(b)(3)).
GroundsThat DOF's market value is excessive or unlawful, or that the property is a primary residence (§ 11-3206(c)). "Unlawful" includes that the property is not subject to the surcharge at all.
FilingOn Form TC107, with instructions, from the Tax Commission's surcharge page. For the first year the window runs from the date Finance issues your notice through March 1, 2027 (Admin. Code § 11-3206(e)–(f); § 11-3206 was amended by ch. 127 of the Laws of 2026). Tax Commission surcharge appeal (Form TC107) ↗
EffectFiling under § 11-3206(b)(2) forecloses the DOF appeal route entirely (§ 62-06(e)).
PreservesUnder § 62-06(c)(2), an owner who does not appeal to DOF ordinarily loses the right to challenge under § 11-3206 — unless the initial determination was challenged at the Tax Commission under § 11-3206(b)(2).
CautionAs of this tool's version date, the Tax Commission had not issued rules or procedures specific to the surcharge, and DOF declined to address them as outside the scope of its rulemaking. Check for Tax Commission guidance before relying on this — it is the item most likely to have changed since this tool was last updated.
The practical shape of the decision. If your dispute is purely about primary residence and your proof is clean, the DOF appeal is the faster and simpler route. If you also dispute DOF's market value — or if your co-op's imputed value looks wrong — the Tax Commission is the only forum that reaches both, but its surcharge procedures are undefined as of this writing. Note also that during Phase 1 you may appeal DOF's market value, but not on the ground that the true market value of a condo or co-op unit is below $5 million. The 30-day clock below applies to the DOF primary-residence appeal — the Tax Commission has its own filing window, which for the first year closes March 1, 2027. Do not let the analysis run past either deadline.
To submit a primary-residence exemption this first year
September 18, 2026 — homes, condos & co-ops
This is the date Finance published for uploading your exemption documents through SmartFile. If your letter shows an earlier date, the letter is out of date. Notices went out showing August 21 (homes and condos) or August 24 (co-ops); the deadline was extended to September 18, 2026 on August 1, 2026, and Finance did not reissue the letters. Confirm the current date at nyc.gov/npsurcharge ↗ and with counsel.
A separate deadline if you go to the Tax Commission. If instead of (or in addition to) the exemption you're challenging your value at the Tax Commission, that runs on its own clock — the first-year window closes March 1, 2027, on Form TC107. Don't assume the two deadlines are the same.
Enter a notice date to calculate a 30-day deadline.
A few things worth knowing.
The notice won't explain itself. Finance has said its first-year notices give the projected surcharge and the deadline, but not the reasoning behind the determination — so gathering your documents early matters.
A letter can still arrive through August 30, 2026 — the outer date for Finance to send first-year determinations (§ 62-06(a)(4)).
No letter doesn't mean you're safe. The surcharge can apply even if Finance never sends anything; if so, the response clock runs from when it appears on the roll (§ 62-06(a)(4)).
December 31, 2026 — Finance publishes the final roll. January 2027 — the first surcharge, if any, appears on your property tax bill.
Calculate the annual surcharge based on your current DOF value.
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Potential FY 2026-27 surcharge calculator
Enter your FY 2026-27 DOF market value (or imputed value) above to see your estimated potential FY 2026-27 surcharge.
Estimate your Phase 2 exposure (FY 2028-29 onward)
Phase 2 switches condo and co-op valuation to comparable sales. Optional — uses estimates only.
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Phase 2 exposure estimator
Beginning fiscal year 2028-29, the surcharge applies a uniform $5 million threshold (across all property types) with rates of 0.8% / 1.05% / 1.3%. Condos and co-ops will be valued by comparable sales rather than the current income approach.
DOF has not published the Phase 2 valuation methodology, and in the final rules it expressly deferred the question — several commenters raised Phase 2 sales-data collection and the use of a sales-based method for co-ops, and DOF responded that Phase 2 methodology "is not necessary to discuss at this stage of the rulemaking process." Expect a separate future rulemaking. The estimator below uses a range of plausible outcomes based on how aggressively DOF converges on actual sales values.
A note on Phase 2 for co-ops: The corporation remains the assessed entity — co-ops have one tax lot, not separate per-unit lots — and the surcharge is added to the corporation's statement of account and collected by the corporation from each tenant-stockholder (Admin. Code § 11-3205(a), (f)). That does not change in Phase 2. What changes is the valuation method: the statute calls for a market value for each co-op dwelling unit using a method that considers comparable co-op or condo sales. The Phase 1 share-allocation formula is not expressly carried into Phase 2, so how DOF will produce unit-level Phase 2 values is unresolved — it may value the corporation and allocate, or value units directly. The corporation remains responsible for payment and collection either way, but that does not tell you which valuation route DOF will take. The final rules did add § 62-07(c), permitting co-op units to be identified on the assessment roll by street address and unit number — a small step toward unit-level visibility. But DOF expressly deferred Phase 2 methodology, declining to address commenters' concerns about applying a sales-based method to co-ops at all. The estimator below uses your unit's estimated sales value as a proxy for what DOF might assign, but the actual result depends on methodology choices DOF has not yet made.
Why your Phase 1 number does not predict Phase 2
Your Phase 1 imputed value is a slice of the corporation's income-approach value — what DOF estimates the building would earn as a rental. Your Phase 2 exposure turns on what your apartment would sell for. These are different quantities, measured different ways, and the second is substantially larger. A low Phase 1 number does not tell you that you are safe in Phase 2.
What changes in Phase 2 (fiscal year 2028-29 onward): the threshold becomes a uniform $5 million for all property types, the rates drop to 0.8% / 1.05% / 1.3%, and DOF values condos and co-ops using comparable sales instead of the income approach. The $1 million Phase 1 threshold and the 4.0% / 5.25% / 6.5% rates disappear.
DOF has not published its Phase 2 methodology and expressly declined to address it in this rulemaking, so how sales evidence will be translated into a per-unit figure for co-ops is not yet settled. Two things are worth monitoring in the meantime: sale prices in your own building, which are the best available evidence of what DOF will eventually be looking at; and DOF's annual market value for the corporation, which drives your Phase 1 number and has generally been rising. Enter your own estimate of your apartment's sale value below.
Would your apartment sell today for more than $5 million?
If you're not sure, your most recent purchase price is a reasonable anchor — adjust upward if you bought a long time ago and the market has appreciated.
Based on the value you indicated, your unit would not be subject to the Phase 2 surcharge under the basic threshold logic.
Phase 2 applies a $5 million threshold to all property types, valued using comparable sales. A unit worth less than $5 million on the market would fall below the threshold.
Worth monitoring rather than filing away. Phase 2 does not begin until fiscal year 2028-29, and it will be driven by sale prices — which move. Watch what apartments in your building actually trade for; those sales are the evidence DOF will eventually be working from. A unit comfortably under $5 million today can approach the threshold over the surcharge's life, which runs through fiscal year 2031.
One caveat worth knowing about: DOF has not specified whether its Phase 2 methodology will revalue every co-op and condo unit comprehensively, or only those already flagged as potentially subject based on Phase 1 values. If DOF takes the comprehensive approach, units that Phase 1 does not flag could still be reached if their actual sales value clears $5 million. DOF was asked about Phase 2 methodology in the rulemaking and expressly declined to address it at this stage, so this remains open — and matters most to exactly the owners this screen just told they are below the threshold.