Real estate tax credits

For a co-op, the building as a whole is assessed and pays one tax bill. The board hires a tax certiori firm to challenge the assessment. They're paid a percentage of the reduction they get for the building. The individual shareholders and their apartments aren't involved.

There's a per-apartment abatement ($400, I think) that the city pays back. That's technically payable to the shareholder but is channeled through the co-op, so the co-op assesses the amount back when it gets it. E.g., a 100-unit building might pay $1,000,000 in taxes, less $40,000 in abatements. The co-op budgets for $960,000.

There're some other per-apartment/per-shareholder abatements, e.g. for low-income/old-age, but I don't know how they're accounted for. See http://www.nyc.gov/html/dof/html/property/property_tax_reduc_taxreductions.shtml

thank you