Tower of tax woes
Manafort may have broken law
PRESIDENT TRUMP’S former campaign chairman and a key player in the FBI probe of Russian election meddling appears to be getting an illegal property tax break on his Trump Tower luxury condo, the Daily News has learned.
Paul Manafort gets $5,000 trimmed off his annual tax bill under a city condo tax abatement program that’s only available to properties that are an owner’s primary residence.
Manafort claims to the city that his exclusive Fifth Ave. aerie on the 43rd floor — 23 floors below Trump’s — is his primary residence.
But he also claims that his Palm Beach, Fla., condo is his primary residence to get a big tax break down there known as a homestead exemption.
Both New York and Florida have the same rule — you only get the tax break if the property is your primary residence. You can’t have it both ways.
Voting records show Manafort is registered to vote at his Palm Beach address. He last voted in the November election from that address and his registration is listed as active.
In contrast, there is no record of Manafort registering to vote at his Trump Tower address or at any of his other city addresses in SoHo and Brooklyn, city election officials told The News.
The application for the New York City condo abatement explicitly states, “The co-op or condo unit must be the owner’s primary residence.” The Florida homestead exemption application states in big block letters, “Do not complete this application if you do not reside on this property.”
Manafort quit as Trump’s campaign manager in August after a ledger emerged in Ukraine indicating he’d been given $12 million in cash payments by the country’s ousted, pro-Russian Ukrainian oligarchs.
The FBI is investigating whether Russia manipulated the 2016 election to favor Trump and whether Trump’s associates — including Manafort — were involved in that effort.
On his latest New York City property tax bill, the condo abatement saved Manafort $5,502 off a $31,439 tax bill for his Trump Tower condo. That’s a 17% discount.
In Florida, the homestead exemption reduces the assessed value of Manafort’s condo by $50,000 a year, from $737,166 to $687,166, thereby reducing his tax bill by about 7%.
A spokesman for Manafort, Jason Maloni, said Manafort considered the Florida condo to be his primary residence, and he was unsure why the Trump Tower address was receiving the tax break.
A lawyer for Manafort, Bruce Baldinger, said, “Florida is Mr. Manafort’s primary residence. He has not asked to change his residence to New York State. My law firm was charged with overseeing the requisite filings for the State of New York.
“We are reviewing the matter and will, if necessary, make any correction,” he said.
Manafort is benefiting from a vulnerability within the city Department of Finance — the agency doesn’t make property owners certify in writing what they claim as their primary residence.
City Controller Scott Stringer blasted the department for the oversight in a January 2016 audit, alleging that the city has lost $10 million over the last four years this way.
Contacted by The News regarding Manafort’s dual tax breaks, Stringer expressed outrage at the city’s ineptitude.
“This raises serious questions and concerns,” Stringer said. “No matter how powerful someone may be, everyone has to play by the same rules.”
The Department of Finance was unaware of Manafort’s Florida tax break and said Manafort was eligible for the city condo tax abatement.
In November 2006, Manafort paid $3.6 million in cash for the Trump Tower apartment under a limited liability corporation called John Hannah LLC.
That same year, Manafort signed a $10 million contract to work for a Russian billionaire to do work to “benefit” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government, The Associated Press has reported.
In 2013 the law changed and LLCs were no longer eligible for the condo tax abatement. Manafort kept getting the break into 2014, but by June of that year the benefit terminated.
In March 2015, he put the condo under his and his wife’s name, and the condo tax abatement resumed last June. Since then he’s continued to receive it while voting from his Florida address.