What to know about Mayor Michelle Wu’s proposed serious estate transfer tax – Information

Christopher Gavin — Boston.com employees

February 1, 2022 12:59 pm

Mayor Michelle Wu has put forth a proposal to levy a transfer tax on authentic estate gross sales in Boston over $2 million — a move that could convey in approximately $100 million every year to help fund very affordable housing initiatives, her administration states.

Wu, on Monday, submitted a house rule petition that, if approved, would set up a rate of up to 2 percent on sure serious estate income to be paid by sellers.

These kinds of a tax would have introduced in an believed $99.7 million for the town in 2021.

The petition also involves expanded residence tax cuts for very low-revenue seniors by rewriting eligibility standards in the city’s 41C software, which gives tax help to people over the age of 65 who reside in houses that they individual. The adjustments would make it possible for for a number of thousand additional homeowners to come to be qualified based mostly on their profits.

“Housing is health and fitness, security, and opportunity—and housing steadiness must be the basis for our restoration from the pandemic,” Wu explained in a statement. “As the price of housing has develop into much more and extra out of attain for people, we must get urgent motion to retain family members in their residences and construct a town for everyone.”

The transfer charge proposal follows equivalent petitions submitted in 2019 and 2021. Residence rule petitions will have to be permitted by the Metropolis Council and signed by the mayor and then sent to the Legislature and governor for approval.

The legislation would make funding for the city’s Community Housing Belief, which produces and preserves cost-effective housing. The proposal could also fuel courses that bolster senior home owner and low-money renter balance and housing entry disparities, Wu’s staff members mentioned in a push release.

The petition would “discourage rapid repeat product sales of properties” and put exemptions on certain transactions, which include transfers created involving family users, in accordance to the Wu administration.

Metropolis officials could inevitably provide other exemptions for “economically vulnerable populations, economical housing developments, deed-limited housing, proprietor occupant householders, beneficiaries of a city-authorised homebuyer program, or many others,” the administration reported.

Boston Metropolis Councilor and state Sen. Lydia Edwards, who was an unique sponsor of the 2019 filing, referred to as the most current edition of the proposal “a phase in the proper course.”

“This assists the town of Boston arrive up with sustainable resources of funding for housing and also give our seniors and house owners some tax reduction,” Edwards mentioned in a assertion. “I seem forward to functioning with my colleagues on the Town Council and at the State Household to get this transfer price passed.”

The house rule petition also stands to give select seniors a crack on their residence taxes, via the funds collected underneath the transfer tax.

In accordance to Wu’s workers, changes proposed to the 41C tax aid plan would “modernize the aging criteria which has shrunk the pool of eligible candidates in recent decades.”

Specially, the house rule petition would bump up the program’s foundation exemption from $1,000 to $1,500 and the complete probable exemption from $2,000 to $3,000.

Other alterations incorporate broadening eligibility in the system by swapping set income limits with 50 percent of the space median cash flow, or AMI, and doubling the asset limit levels, officials mentioned.

“If handed, these variations would choose impact for Fiscal Calendar year 2023, and the profits boundaries for that calendar year would maximize from the current $24,911 to $47,000 for solitary persons, and from $37,367 to $53,700 for a couple,” Wu’s business office stated. “The asset limitations would increase from $40,000 to $80,000 for single people, and from $55,000 to $110,000 (the asset limitations exclude the benefit of the applicant’s dwelling).”

There are at the moment close to 4,600 senior property owners who are cash flow eligible for the 41C tax exemption, in accordance to city officials. Amendments underneath the home rule petition would extend eligibility to about 8,700 senior property owners.

“This modest cost on people who prosper from Boston’s results will present a great deal-needed reduction to seniors who aided establish this city but now wrestle to remain,” Edna Pruce, an 88-calendar year-old Mattapan home-owner who serves as president of the Massachusetts Senior Motion Council, explained in a statement.