In a city where time is money, it’s hard to believe that for four years the city’s Finance Department was mistakenly giving away tax rebates reserved for residential condo and co-op owners to those that are corporate-owned, totaling more than $10 million between 2013 and 2016. The Post reports that the program gave out money to “indoor parking garages, gardens, cabanas and even storage spaces,” as well as “three office buildings and two retail shops,” according to a recent audit. More than 1,000 building owners were improperly awarded the tax abatements, accounting for up to 28.1 percent of their total annual tax bills.
City Comptroller Scott Stringer said the city had all the proper documentation needed to deny the 3,471 wrongful rebates, but simply failed to review them. “The city handed out millions in tax abatements to corporate-owned condos, parking spots and cabanas because no one bothered to review basic tax records. The Department of Finance needs to significantly step up its game and collect all the taxes the city is owed,” he said. Pierre Dejean, Assistant Commissioner of the Finance Department, responded: “We will meet internally with the commissioner and our legal department to determine if it is appropriate to recoup benefits from prior years for these properties.” The agency also said it’s launching a new internal software for the 2017-2018 tax season that will prevent these types of mistakes.