The commercial rent tax was created in 1963, a time when the city was struggling to find new means of revenue. But with rents rapidly rising, even small businesses are now being forced to pay the tax, which was not the original intent, Mr. Garodnick said. Last year, she paid over $15,000 in the commercial rent tax, money she said could have gone toward renovations, pay increases for her staff, or tweaking her website. “But the bigger picture is it’s a holdover law from the 1960s that was never intended to hurt small businesses,” she said. “But it is completely targeting small business.”Though the tax is a drop in the bucket compared with her $324,000 annual rent bill, Ms. Amott applauded the measure as a critical first step.

Source: New York Times November 29, 2017 00:22 UTC