Should tenants of occupied storefronts have to file vacancy tax paperwork?

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Speech-to-text from the recording, unchecked.

a speaker The filing process is also burdensome for the office of the treasurer tax collector as well they inevitably end up dedicating limited compliance and investigator capacity to fight to chasing after compliance with the filing rather than focusing on enforcement on the vacant properties the problem the tax is meant to address in the first place for the 2024 tax year the city received several thousand filings but only about 200 of those filers reported a vacancy.

a speaker Meanwhile the penalty for not filing is $158 and applies regardless of whether the storefront is occupied.

a speaker Tenants and subtenants who've operated in the same place for years are thus being penalized and having to pay this annoying penalty for failing to file a form indicating that they are in fact filling the storefront where they are located it seems pretty ridiculous.