At what REAL level does mansion tax kick in?

Double check with your lawyer but I believe transfer tax is added to the sale price regardless who pays.

I guess what I am asking is, what is the highest bid I can make and still not have to pay mansion tax.

Well if its a 2% tax then you can't go higher than 980K, right?

Is it the same for brownstones over a million? How much is it (in %of sale)?

NYC mansion tax is 1% of sale price. Applies to all sales over $1M.

LOL -- "mansion" tax!

tbs is looking for an exact #. It's a good question if you're going to dodge the Mansion tax.
We know the generalized rules, the question is my bid 'plus' what exrtas encompas the final # that will be taxed or not. I'm interested too. Any legal begals out there to pass comment?

There have been previous discussions on this topic. What I got -- somebody please correct me if I'm wrong -- is that the mansion tax is added to the sale price when calculating the mansion tax (only in New York, kids)

NY law specifies that the buyer pays it, but by custom, developers often pay it... but it's then added to the price basis for the seller. The grey area is >950k -- but what happens in the grey area??? That's the OP's question -- and mine too.

I've never seen this very topic discussed but I do recall someone saying that they'll look very closely at a sale that just squeaks under the mansion tax amount.

spinnaker is correct. so anything under a million does not have the tax.

The blog Urban Digs has a great explanation on this topic.
Basically the Mansion tax threshold is calculated as purchase price PLUS the transfer tax.
But read on, as the Mansion tax is deductible on the subsequent sale of the property assuming that the buyer paid said tax.

http://www.urbandigs.com/2008/05/the_million_dollar_mansion_tax.html

I think that this thread is full of (kindly meant but still wrong) misinformation.

From what I understand, the mansion tax is 1% of the sale price of an apt (co-op or condo) that has a final sale price of $1M or more. The ONLY time that you would add the transfer tax amt to the sale price in order to calculate whether you meet the $1M threshold for the mansion tax is when the BUYER pays the transfer tax, and that is usually only in the case of a sponsor sale. (normally the seller pays transfer tax, and in that case, you do not combine the transfer tax amt and the sale price for the mansion tax calculation). So under normal, seller-pays-transfer-tax situation, a final sale price of 999,999 should not incur the mansion tax. The only question is, how much money comes out of the buyer's pocket to pay for the apartment?

In sum, anyone asking this question should ask a real estate lawyer and not trust this thread-- don't even trust me!

Another "loop hole"...Have the buyer pay the brokers commissions at the closing and not the seller. Deduct the amount from the $1M and this gives you more whiggle room around the manision tax.

"mansion" simply means dwelling, so really the 1% tax should be extended to all sales of any dollar amount whatsoever.

[In the UK, "mansion" specifically means flat (apartment); the word is not applied to SFRs. The term also refers to the branches of the Rastafari movement, but I don't think the NYS law was meant to apply to that usage.]