Tax exemption

A tax exemption removes part or all of a property's assessed value from taxation — the mechanics of most of the city's property-tax benefits, from the residential development incentives to institutional, senior, and veterans' provisions. Exemptions have terms: qualification criteria, application and renewal requirements, phase-out schedules, and expiration dates that convert into scheduled tax increases.

In analysis, exemption records answer two questions: why is this building's tax bill what it is, and when does the arithmetic change? An expiring development exemption is a priced, dated event — rent rolls and underwriting that ignore it are borrowing against a known future. The benefit's conditions can also bind operations, affordability terms among them.