Overview

Costing over $1 billion a year, the 421a Real Estate Developer Tax Exemption program is the biggest tax giveaway no one has ever heard of. 421-a is the City’s single largest expenditure on housing, costing more than tenant vouchers, NYCHA, and subsidies for affordable housing development. In spite of the enormous price tag, the program creates mostly middle-income & luxury housing in gentrifying or gentrified neighborhoods. We need to stop funding luxury development and fund deeply affordable housing.

The Project

ANHD has led our member groups to advocate against the 421a Real Estate Developer Tax Exemption program, as well as written extensively on this tax exemption and the lack of true community benefit it offers to residents. When the program came up for renewal in Albany last year (2022), we were a key source of original research and analysis to give good housing and fiscal policy a fighting chance. Thanks to our advocacy, the legislature chose not to renew 421a. 

ANHD continues to be a resource for our member groups who want to fight for public accountability and a real public benefit in this tax exemption.

Recent Blogs and Media

Blog
November 4, 2016
The controversial 421a tax exemption for developers – now popularly known as the Trump Tax Break – is back in the news with reports of a possible pre-Election Day deal that would mortgage New York City’s budget for decades to come. As a recent article in Politico New York reports, decision-makers are not only conferring to bring the 421a Trump Tax Break back, but they are also considering making the tax break even more costly by extending the term of the exemption.

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