You mean I had to REPORT that $92G?
Speaker stays mum to city officials Mark-viverito: I disclosed all to IRS
COUNCIL SPEAKER Melissa Mark-Viverito failed to report $92,600 in rental income from her East Harlem townhouse on city disclosure forms, she admitted in documents released late Friday.
Mark-Viverito for the first time released her federal tax forms and said she reported to the taxman every dime in rent she received on the townhouse from 2009 through 2012.
But she neglected to disclose this steady stream of income on her Conflict of Interest Board forms — which are public documents — during those years.
Her spokesman, Eric Koch, declined to explain the omission, stating in a terse email that the forms “show she paid taxes on the rental income on her property.”
Mark-Viverito did not report any rental income to the Internal Revenue Service on two condos in which she has a 33% stake in Puerto Rico.
Late Friday, the real estate website Zillow listed one of those properties as a hot rental, stating, “The building generates $104,000 of income annually.”
Mark-Viverito’s spokesman, Koch, said she received no income from the Puerto Rican properties.
The News raised questions last week — before Mark-Viverito was elected speaker — about rental income at her East Harlem home after discovering several individuals registered to vote at her address.
She admitted she hadn’t revealed rental income there on her city disclosure forms but declined to release her tax forms or provide details on her tenants and how much rent they pay.
In releasing her tax forms Friday, Mark-Viverito continued to refuse to answer those questions about her tenants.
The law requires some 8,000 city employees to report any outside income to the COIB to ensure transparency in city government.
Records show that in 2007 and 2008, Mark-Viverito reported her rental income on her city disclosure forms, but that income disappeared from the forms between 2009 and 2012.
Each year she reported to the IRS that she received between $20,200 and $29,200 in rent on the “apartment portion” of her E. 111th St. townhouse.
She bought the home in 1998 under a program meant to encourage home ownership for lower-income New Yorkers. She was approved for a nointerest city subsidized mortgage and she got a property tax break that continues each year.