I already pay New York City income tax. Why me?

The surcharge is assessed property by property. It looks for a qualifying person using that specific property as a primary residence on the taxable status date. Where are you domiciled, and where do you file and pay income tax? Both are inputs to that question rather than answers to it.

Where does the confusion come from?

A statutory resident pays New York City income tax as a resident, and it is natural to read that as settling the primary residence question. DOF's residency indicators do include the address on state or federal income tax returns. But the list is expressly "including but not limited to," and it also includes receipt of residency-based benefits and majority-of-days occupancy. Paying city income tax is evidence, not a switch.

The practical result is that an owner can be a New York City resident for income tax purposes and still receive a notice on a property where no qualifying person is recorded as living. That combination is one of the unresolved points in the program as adopted. Nothing official reconciles the two regimes, and anyone telling you the income tax filing alone disposes of the surcharge is guessing.

What actually helps?

• The most recent federal or state income tax return showing this property as the address. The address on the return, not the fact of filing, is the item DOF names: why the income tax return leads the list.
• Two of driver's license, voter registration, and utility or similar bills, where the return does not carry the address. What does each one have to show? The two-of set.
• For an entity or a trust, organizational documents plus an officer or trustee affidavit, tying those residency documents to a majority interest holder or a sole current beneficiary.

If you own more than one unit in the city

A primary residence in New York City does not shield a second unit in New York City. The second one is asked the same question and needs its own answer, on its own notice, with its own documents. That is why the notices are reaching people who consider themselves, correctly, New Yorkers.