Thursday, June 23rd, 2011
While much of the country is in a deep real estate recession, the Eastern End of Long Island has seen an uptick in gross sales which in turn affects the 2% Peconic Land Tax as well as other transfer taxes.
This particular tax was born in the late 90’s to fund the purchase of land for preservation. A great concept at the most perfect time….it was a race against losing our rural aesthetic beauty. Nearly $700 million dollars in total have been collected and put to good use in preserving over 6000 acres.
The 2% tax is paid at the closing, usually by the buyer. The first $150,000 of sale price is excluded on the North Fork & Riverhead and $250,000 on the South Fork. Many have argued the baseline amount should rise & fall with market values but that never happened.
Thus far in 2011 the collections by township have been as follows: $16.7M from Southampton, $5M from East Hampton, $1.3M from the North Fork, $790,000 from Riverhead & $390,000 from Shelter Island.
Thank you to all who continue to assist in the efforts of our local municipalities to preserve our way of life!