Law-of-Poe t1_j5jo4ej wrote on January 23, 2023 at 2:15 PM

Reply to comment by mowotlarx in NYC, Goldman Sachs Launch Effort to Give Struggling Small Businesses a Lift by NotYourCity

To me, the only logical way for them to lower rent is by letting their properties sit empty and generate no revenue when no one can or will pay their exorbitant rents.

But the fact that they can write off empty properties as losses on their taxes is what really gets me. That provision should be eliminated.

Pool_Shark t1_j5jupnd wrote on January 23, 2023 at 3:04 PM

Yeah it needs to be the opposite. A vacancy tax would help incentivize keeping small business rather than keeping stores empty in hopes a bank or a chain will pay ridiculous rent prices.

Just set up some provisions so it can be waived during a recession or if a certain area is struggling, etc.

Law-of-Poe t1_j5jxrcn wrote on January 23, 2023 at 3:25 PM

Or that. I can sympathize with property owners that are falling on legitimately hard times and can’t rent out.

But it is so blatantly obvious that many are gaming the system by writing off imaginary losses on the hopes of hooking a big money tenant. This kind of manipulation should not be tolerated

djdjddhdhdh t1_j5jpyoo wrote on January 23, 2023 at 2:29 PM

Well the write really depends on what is being written off. AFAIK you still have to pay property taxes on empty properties. But you don’t pay income taxes, since there is no income, and you can transfer loss for certain amount of yers. We can’t particularly charge taxes on income that doesn’t exist, but loss write down could probably be discussed, but will be a difficult implementation