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In July this column noted the bad blood between Rhode Island legislators and property owners targeted by the Ocean State’s new “Taylor Swift tax” on second homes. Thousands of these taxpayers are far from billionaires, and now they’re trying to fight back with an argument as old as our beloved country. Tim White recently reported for CBS affiliate WPRI in
Providence: The so-called “Taylor Swift tax” is facing its first major legal challenge, with dozens of Rhode Island property owners arguing the state’s new levy on luxury second homes is unconstitutional. The “Non-Owner Occupied Property Tax” took effect on July 1, imposing an additional tax on the thousands of residential properties in Rhode Island assessed at more than $1 million that are vacant for at least half of the year. The law is informally nicknamed the “Taylor Swift tax” in reference to the celebrity singer-songwriter’s Watch Hill estate, which has an assessed value upward of $28 million… So far, Swift has not made public comment, nor has she taken legal action challenging the tax. But dozens of property owners have sued to stop the new tax, which comes on top of existing property taxes paid to the state’s cities and towns. Sean Rowen writes at Americans for Tax Reform:
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