Common Questions
Straight answers about the NYC co-op and condo tax abatement.From someone who knows it inside out.
Understanding the abatement
Not sure how the abatement works or whether your building qualifies? These are the questions most boards ask first.
It's a property tax credit for eligible co-op and condo owners, authorized under New York Real Property Tax Law §467-a. It reduces an eligible unit owner's tax by a percentage that scales with the development's average assessed value. The key point for boards: individual owners do not apply for it. A condo board of managers or a co-op board of directors applies on behalf of the entire development. That filing is the work I handle. You can read more about the tax abatement program in the Department of Finance website.
The benefit scales with the development's average assessed value per residential unit. As the program is currently structured, it ranges from 28.1% for an average assessed value of $50,000 or less, down to 17.5% for $60,001 and above, with two tiers in between.
It depends on the building type. For condos, the credit appears on one of the quarterly or semiannual tax bills the city issues. For co-ops, the Department of Finance mails a benefit schedule and the credit is passed through by the board, often as an adjustment on the maintenance bill.
Every year. A building that has never received the abatement, or that previously opted out, files an initial application; an existing benefit is renewed annually. The renewal is where many buildings quietly fall out of the program, because some of them are required to file the prevailing wage affidavit, and failing to do so.
Eligibility and filing
The practical details on who qualifies and who handles the paperwork for your building.
The core requirements: the development must be tax class 2, and it cannot be receiving J-51, 420c, 421-a, 421-b, or 421-g benefits unless those are scheduled to expire on June 30 of the application year. HDFC, Mitchell-Lama, limited-dividend, redevelopment, DAMP, and UDAAP properties are not eligible.
At the unit level, the apartment must be the owner's primary residence, the owner must have purchased on or before January 5 to qualify for the tax year beginning July 1, and units owned by an LLC, a sponsor, or a successor are generally not eligible. Confirming where a specific building stands is part of what I check before filing.
The board. The co-op or condo board, or its managing agent, applies to the Department of Finance on behalf of all qualifying units. Individual owners only certify their primary residence to the board. So when filing isn't happening, it's a board-level gap, not something owners can fix on their own. We can help with this gap.
It's additional filing some buildings must submit to stay eligible. It's required for developments with 30 or more units and an average assessed unit value above $60,000, or fewer than 30 units and an average above $100,000. This one carries real consequence: skipping it when required removes the entire building from the abatement for the year, with no exception process. Checking whether your building is on the required list is part of our process.
Yes. The abatement can be filed by any representative authorized by the board, or by the board itself. The filler should submit the primary residency status for owners with supporting evidence, collect unit and building information, check the prevailing wage status and more. This is a lot of work for a volunteer board member - we are here to help you out. You can read more about our filling process in here.
This is the question most boards should be asking. Common failure points are a building filing issue, a primary-residence certification gap, or a missed prevailing wage affidavit. Any of these can quietly drop a building or qualifying units, and because the credit shows up differently for co-ops and condos, a lapse can go unnoticed for a year or more. Reviewing whether your filing is in place and current is something I can do at the outset.
It starts with you getting your free eligibility check, which lets us check public records and confirm where your abatement stands. From there, we check if your building is required to pay prevailing wage to qualify. If we find your building should apply, you send us some of the development information and an owners contact list. We reach out to owners, get their primary residency certification, prepare and submit the initial filing or renewal to the Department of Finance, track it through processing, and confirm the benefit is applied.
Still have questions?
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