Tuesday 16 June 2015

Rent = privately collected income tax.

Mombers left a new comment on the post We own land! Give us money!":

Out of interest, I wonder how the means testing of rent controls works?

"Apartments can be deregulated under rent stabilisation if they are vacated at a monthly rent of $2,500 (£1,600) or if they reach that rate and the occupant's income reaches $200,000."

So does your landlord get access to your private financial data?


One would assume so - a bit like the tax office.

And do they really get to keep a portion of your income above $200k for doing precisely nothing...

Clearly yes. It's not clear from the article how much, but broadly speaking a percentage of it - a bit like income tax.

... or does that money somehow end up going to the public purse?

The landlord in turn will pay some income tax on that 'income tax' he has collected from you.

5 comments:

mombers said...

Who enforces the sharing of this private data and punishes violators? And at what rate does the landlord trouser income above $200k?

Mark Wadsworth said...

M, we don't know, do we? Presumably full market rent minus controlled rent, could be tens of thousands of dollars per year.

Bayard said...

Sounds like a recipe for corruption to me.

mombers said...

MW, presumably there's a 'taper' else someone on $210k can avoid having their landlord trouser their income by popping $10k into their pension or give to charity? I wonder how many apartments actually get deregulated under this rule, I'm sure lots of people just lie anyway.

Mark Wadsworth said...

M, lots of people lie? A bit like income tax then.