原文：中文译文在最后 (文章音频)
NUMBER 220Central Park South is one of New York City’s swankier addresses. Its amenities include a golf simulation room and a saltwater swimming pool. In January Ken Griffin, the founder of Citadel, a hedge fund, bought a penthouse in the building for $238m, setting a record for the priciest home in America. Mr Griffin, who has homes in Chicago, Florida and London, reportedly will not make this his primary residence, thus reigniting an old proposal to tax New York City’s many pieds-à-terre.【swanky: deluxe plush] [amenity:facility good things] [ignite-set on fire] [pieds-à-terre: apartment hotel]
Pieds-à-terre are part-time second homes occupied for less than half the year. Many are simply convenient places to park money and are vacant most of the time. Because their owners have their primary residences out of state, they are not subject to state or local income taxes. Nor do they generate much in local sales-tax revenues. After the Griffin deal closed, Corey Johnson, the city council’s Speaker, announced that it was “time for a pied-à-terre tax”.
Legislation which had been languishing in Albany for five years is gathering support. It would impose a yearly tax of between 0.5% and 4% on the assessed value of apartments worth $5m or more. Scott Stringer, the city’s comptroller, estimates the tax would generate a minimum of $650m a year. Robert Mujica, the state budget director, said taxing the absentee owners of expensive non-primary residences would help pay to restore the crumbling subway (though a few hundred million would not go far in those long tunnels). Andrew Cuomo, New York’s governor, supports the idea too.[crumble: decay broken] 【languish: droop dwindle】
Over the past few years New York has seen a lot of high-end property development, as new skinny towers have changed the city skyline. The most recent Housing and Vacancy Survey found that the number of non-primary residences increased from 55,000 in 2014 to 75,000 in 2017.
Estate agents fret that the tax will hit their profits. Manhattan has 8,600 unsold newly built units. At the current rate of sale, it would take 6.4 years to sell them all. According to Grant Long, an economist with StreetEasy, a listing site, only 21% of units priced at $5m and higher found buyers. Units that sold closed below the asking price. “It’s insanity,” says Doug Russell of Brown Harris Stevens, a brokerage that primarily serves the wealthy. “It will kill New York real estate.” Mr Russell foresees prices will stay under $5m to avoid the tax. He also predicts developers will go bankrupt.
Some buyers have been put off by a change in federal tax law which caps state and local tax deductions, including property taxes, at $10,000. Owners already pay a mansion tax, a one-time 1% sales tax. More tax, says Harry Nassar, a broker at Sotheby’s, will cause people to shun New York. Some advocates of new taxes might consider that to be a benefit.
If New York implements the tax, it would join Vancouver, which has an empty-home tax, and London, which has a surcharge on purchases of second homes. Some blame increased “stamp duty” a tax on home purchases, for a softening in the London market. But it did not dissuade Mr Griffin from spending £95m ($122m) in January on a London town house. That purchase would have incurred a one-off tax of $18.5m. By contrast, if New York’s laws change, he could face $8.9m a year in pied-à-terre taxes for his Manhattan base.[dissuade:talk out of/discourage]
句型用法高亮:
1. make this his primary residence 把某处变成主要居所
2. reignite an old proposal 重新激活一个方案
3. simply convenient places to park money
4. at the current rate of sale 以这样的速度发展下去
5. dissuade Mr Griffin from 劝说不干某事
译文
Central Park South 220号的是纽约市较为豪华的住所，其设施包括高尔夫模拟室和海水游泳池。今年1月，对冲基金Citadel的创始人肯·格里芬（Ken Griffin）以2.38亿美元的价格购买了该建筑的顶层公寓，创下了美国最昂贵住宅的纪录。据报道，在芝加哥，佛罗里达和伦敦拥有住房的格里芬先生将不会将其作为他的主要居所，因此重新引发了一项搁置计划的讨论，即对纽约市的许多非主要居所进行征税。
Pieds-à-terre是俗称的第二套房，占用时间不到半年。许多人只是用以洗钱，而且大部分时间都是空置的。由于其所有者的主要居住地不在州内，因此不需缴纳州或地方所得税。他们也没有在当地销售税收中产生太多贡献。在格里芬交易完成后，市议会议长科里•约翰逊（Corey Johnson）宣布，这是“征收空置房税收的时间”。
在奥尔巴尼来回徘徊五年的立法正在得到支持。它将对价值500万美元或以上的公寓的评估价格征收0.5％至4％的年度税。该市的审计员斯科特斯特林格估计，税收每年至少会产生6.5亿美元。国家预算主任罗伯特·穆希卡（Robert Mujica）表示，对非主要住宅征税的收入将投入翻新恢复破旧的地铁（尽管数亿美元并没什么鸟用）。纽约州长安德鲁库莫也支持这个想法。
在过去的几年里，纽约已经看到了许多高端房地产开发，因为新的高耸入云的建筑改变了城市的天际线。最近的住房和空置调查发现，非主要住宅的数量从2014年的55,000增加到2017年的75,000。
房地产经纪人担心税收将达到他们的利润。曼哈顿有8,600个未售出的新建单位。按目前的销售速度，将它们全部出售需要6.4年。根据StreetEasy（一家上市网站）的经济学家格兰特朗（Grant Long）的说法，只有21％的售价500万美元甚至更高的单位能找到买家。卖出的单位收盘价低于要价。 “这是疯狂的，”布朗哈里斯史蒂文斯的道格拉塞尔说，他是一家主要为富人服务的经纪公司。 “这将扼杀纽约房地产。”拉塞尔先生预计价格将低于500万美元以避免征税。他还预测开发商将破产。
一些买家被联邦税法的变更推迟，该法律将州和地方税收减免（包括财产税）限制在10,000美元。业主已缴纳豪宅税，一次性征收1％的销售税。苏富比的经纪人哈里·纳萨尔（Harry Nassar）表示，更多的税收会让人们回避纽约。一些新税收倡导者可能会认为这是一种好处。
如果纽约实施税收，它将加入拥有空房税的温哥华，以及购买第二套住房需要加收附加费的伦敦。由于伦敦市场疲软，一些人指责增加“印花税”对购房征税。但它并没有阻止格里芬先生1月份在伦敦一栋联排别墅花费9500万英镑（1.22亿美元）。这笔购买将产生1850万美元的一次性税。相比之下，如果纽约的法律发生变化，他每年可能会为曼哈顿基地征收890万美元的税费。
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